The Timeline Orphans, Volume 1: Second Chance
by Kinomi
Summary: *COMPLETE* Ten years after defeating Cell in his time Mirai Trunks has again taken a trip to the past. Will it be his last? *2010 Repost of Original with missing chapter*
1. Chapter one

Disclaimers: I don't own DBZ, I am just borrowing characters created by Toriyama-san, and owned by folks with more money and lawyers than me.

THE TIMELINE ORPHANS

Volume 1: A Second Chance

By Kinomi

From Mirai Trunks' Journal:

_I've decided to go back. The decision has weighed long on my heart, after all it isn't my time, or my past. Yet I feel drawn to it, to the inhabitants there…those that have never known the horrors of my world. I should stay away and not interfere, but it's a chance to see her again – my mother. Even if she isn't really mine. It still seems impossible to me as I look around that she is gone forever, that she won't stick her head out from under some piece of equipment here in her lab and complain that I worry about her too much, or that I should go out and find myself a girlfriend – even though she knows I won't._

_I'm all alone in this world now. The passing of my mother Bulma Briefs at age sixty-eight severed the final link I had to this ravaged world. The death of my wife Mina, and our newborn daughter five years ago was the first. I am the last of the Saiyajin royal line, the last of the Briefs, the last of those who have to fight._

_It's been ten years since I destroyed Cell, and thirteen years since I ended the Jinzouningen's reign of terror over our planet. Thirteen years of peace. No longer does this world need me as its protector, its defender. So much has happened to me in that time. We have rebuilt, the scars of the Jinzouningen's rampages are nearly invisible…unless you know where to look...which I do. _

_I feel I've changed so much, will Bulma-Kaasan even recognize me? I don't look so different than when I left, my hair is a little longer, the scowl I inherited from my father carved a little deeper into my face. The big changes in me are on the inside. There has been peace in this world, but there has been great sorrow as well. I wonder what she will say when I tell her I was almost a father…that I was a father for the fifteen minutes my daughter lived before she joined her mother in the afterlife._

_I'll know the answer soon enough when I sail the river of time to see my friends again. As soon as it's charged up I will go. I'm leaving this journal here – in Capsule Corp. for anyone to find. I went to all my favorite places today, visited my wife's grave, and sat on the repaired golden dome that has been my home all my life as if I am never coming back. _

_And if you are reading this, then I never have. I have become the Timeline Orphan again – never content to stay in my own world where I belong._

_Trunks Vegeta Briefs_

_June 16, 801_

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June 16, 798

The sun shone down brightly on the intact golden dome of Capsule Corporation, causing it to sparkle in the afternoon sunlight. A gentle breeze blew softly through the trees, making the flowers dip and sway in their beds. The window framed a picture perfect summer day, but the occupant of the lab had no time to enjoy its beauty as her fingers flew over the keyboard writing the computer code that would aide in the fine tuning of her invention, which lay in pieces around her along with a boom box turned up extra loud.

She pushed the wire framed glasses she wore when she used the computer back up her nose and stretched in her chair, finally noticing the splendor of the summer day outside. She rested her chin in her hand a moment; marveling at the blueness of the sky and the calm serenity of her own personal square of beauty, made all the more so precious by the bustle of activity she knew went on just out of sight of the Lab's window. Wedding preparations.

Marron sighed and turned back to her code, tapping her foot in time to the music. She had worked as Bulma Briefs' Lab Assistant for the last six years; four of them full time since she had gotten her PhD. She had lived at Capsule Corporation with the Briefs family for the last two, ever since her father had died…and Juuhachi-gou had gone off, without a word to anyone including her grown daughter. Her grief had been as great as Marron's at Kuririn's natural death, but with no way to express it Juuhachi-gou had…changed. Marron often wondered if she would ever see her Jinzouningen mother again, or if Juuhachi-gou had finally found a way to join Kuririn in the afterlife.

Marron shook her head briefly to clear her thoughts away from musing about her parents and tried to focus on what she was doing. She had finally gotten the chance to slip away from Bulma to do the kind of work Marron felt qualified to do, which did not include helping Bulma plan her son's wedding. Especially since she was not the bride.

As her thoughts turned to Trunks, Marron gave up writing code and put her hands behind her head as she looked out the window. There was no use trying to work now, she would just make mistakes. _Four more days and he'll be married_, Marron thought.

She and Trunks had been in love once upon what felt like a lifetime ago. They had dated while she was in high school and college, but Marron, for all her icy blonde beauty and clever brain, ultimately hadn't stood a chance against the determination and charm of the vivacious Son Pan.

But then Marron had always been the outsider, the only human in a group of demi-Saiyajin that included Trunks, his sister Bra, Pan, and Trunks' best friend Goten. Trunks and Pan would marry this weekend on Capsule Corporation's grounds, and a month or so after that, Son Goten would marry Bra Briefs in a similar ceremony held on these grounds…and Marron was expected to be a bridesmaid at both. She would soon be the only one left – the only single girl.

_Always the bridesmaid…never the bride…Oh well…Bulma-san was single into her thirties so what am I worried about?_ Marron thought to herself, trying to boost her ego with the mantra Bulma always said to her to cheer her up. It takes a special kind of man to handle beautiful geniuses. Marron smirked, as much as she appreciated Bulma's vote of confidence there just weren't that many Saiyajin Princes floating around for every beautiful genius to have one. She turned off the music by stretching out one long slender leg and hitting the off switch with her bare toe.

"Face it Marron old kid…you are going to die a SINGLE beautiful genius," she muttered to herself and turned back to her work with a rueful grin. As if summoned by her thoughts a certain Saiyajin Prince's face flickered to life on the video panel behind Marron.

"Bulma! There is something not functioning in the gravity room…I demand you come and fix it at once!" Marron didn't even turn around from her terminal.

"She's not here, Vegeta…She went with Trunks and Pan to meet the florist or caterer or some damn thing." Vegeta's holographic face scowled thunderously as it looked down on the lab.

"I want to train! YOU come and fix it then Jinzouning-jo, make yourself useful!" Vegeta barked and Marron bared her teeth at being called for all intents and purposes an 'android daughter'. She spun around in her chair to face the three-meter high image of Vegeta's face - unpleasant enough life sized at times - and stabbed her finger in his direction.

"Don't order me around! I don't work for you! Bulma said NO Gravity Room for you until AFTER the wedding – since I DO work for Bulma that means no Gravity Room for you until at least Monday. Got it?" Marron snapped and turned the music back on which drowned out the Saiyajin Prince's furious response as the his face contorted. Marron wagged her fingers at him and switched the vid screen off.

"Jerk," she said under her breath and feeling rather pleased with herself for standing up to Vegeta's demands like Bulma wanted, she did a little happy chair dance to the music before spinning around. She leapt out of the chair in surprise, sending it clattering over when she saw the figure of a man step out from the shadows by the door. Marron put her hand to her breast to keep her heart from jumping out of her chest.

"I'm sorry I startled you," he said, his voice amused. Marron's eyes widened as he stepped fully into the light of the lab. She was confused for about two seconds thinking that Trunks was playing a trick on her until she realized this wasn't Trunks…at least not of this time. Unless Trunks had found a way to grow his hair past his shoulders and bulk up considerably in the two hours he'd had been gone to meet the caterers.

He looked older than the Trunks of this time as well, his expression hard even when relaxed, as he seemed to be now. The furrows between his eyebrows stayed even as he offered her a small smile.

"I know this may sound strange but I'm…" He started to say, but was interrupted by a harsh voice behind him.

"You! What are you doing here?" Vegeta demanded from the doorway. The lavender haired man in front of Marron turned away from her to the door.

"Hello Father…it's been a long time," Mirai Trunks said.


	2. Chapter two

(AN: For the sake of clarity, Mirai Trunks is referred to as Mirai as long as he is in the same timeline as Chibi (Present) Trunks.)

Mirai Trunks took the cup of tea Bulma offered him with a small smile. The family; plus Marron, Goten, and Pan were all gathered in the living room of the house eagerly waiting to find out what had brought Mirai back from the future. And secretly hoping it wasn't to prophesize another catastrophe.

"Of course we're delighted to see you son, despite what Mr. Grouchy pants over there says," Bulma said with a jerk of her head to indicate Vegeta, who sat apart from the group as always. She hugged Mirai again for about the tenth time since she had arrived home to see Vegeta confronting him in the lab with a stunned and confused Marron looking on.

Trunks sat on the couch with his arm around Pan and rolled his eyes at his older counterpart in sympathy. Mirai patted Bulma on the back lightly as she finally let go of him. Trunks was lucky he still had his mother, Mirai wasn't minding Bulma's attentions a bit.

"Why are you here if you don't mind my asking?" Bra asked. She sat on the other end of the couch from her brother holding Goten's hand. Mirai was still getting over the shock of all that had changed since he had been here last. Not even the least was finding out he - well the Chibi him anyway - had a younger sister…and even more surprising that Chibi him was engaged to Gohan's daughter.

"I'm just a tourist this time I assure you," he told her. She smiled at him and leaned against Goten. He couldn't get over how much she looked like Bulma. Goten put his arm around Bra unconsciously and Mirai noticed Vegeta's lip curl a bit in displeasure. He smiled a little into his tea as he drank. It was obvious that Vegeta didn't approve of his daughter's choice.

"How long will you be staying? Will you be here long enough for the wedding?" Pan asked him. "We'd love to have you…I don't know how we'll explain there being two of you, but we'd love to have you anyway."

"What are you talking about? He doesn't look anything like me!" Trunks said indignantly.

"No, he's better looking than you are." Marron said from her spot in the windowsill behind Mirai. She had her laptop open and until now hadn't seemed like she was paying all that much attention to the conversation. Pan laughed brightly while Trunks shot Marron a dirty look. Mirai had the suspicion these kinds of good-natured jabs went on all the time.

"I hadn't really made any plans on how long I would stay. Of course I didn't realize that you would be having guests, I hope I'm not imposing," Mirai said politely. Bulma waved her hand dismissively.

"Don't be silly! We have plenty of room we'll just do some shifting around," Bulma told him and her gaze fell on Marron who was hunched over her laptop with an intense look of concentration on her face. "Why don't you stay in the extra room in the small guest house with Marron?" Bulma offered with a small smug smile.

"What?" Marron said her head snapping up. Mirai blushed slightly at Bulma-Kaasan's obvious matchmaking. Trunks saw an opening for retaliation for Marron's earlier jab, but Pan elbowed him sharply in the ribs before he could say anything. Bra wasn't quite so fast in shutting Goten up however.

"Yeah Marron, you remember what to do with a guy when you get him alone right?" Goten teased, Marron's sex life - or lack there of - seeming to be the brunt of many jokes. Marron gave Goten a look and pushed her glasses up her nose with her middle finger while he laughed at his joke. Bra smacked him on the back of the head.

"Owww…" Goten mumbled rubbing the offending spot.

"So that means you'll at least stay for the wedding Trunks-san?" Pan asked, trying to steer the conversation back to that suitable for polite company. The older version of her fiancé dipped his head in assent.

"I would be honored," he said politely. Pan elbowed Trunks in the ribs again only not as hard.

"He's more polite than you are," she pointed out to him. Trunks made a face in response.

"Well, that's obviously all my influence. Trunks wasn't raised with his father around, so everything wrong with YOU is Vegeta's fault," Bulma said pointing a long finger at her son before turning back to Mirai. "How is your mother Trunks?" she asked.

Mirai Trunks' features hardened a moment. "My Kaasan passed away last fall," he said quietly. "She'd been sick for some time, but unfortunately, there still isn't the technology or the resources in our world and she succumbed to her illness. I am the last of the Briefs."

Bulma had one hand clapped over her mouth as tears welled in her eyes for this son, the son her other self had borne and raised alone. She had a good idea of how close he had been to his mother; after Gohan died he'd had no one else. He was so different from her own brash and cocky son, Mirai had been quiet and fiercely determined when he had visited before, and she saw he hadn't changed all that much. He was still as polite, but there was a new sadness in him. Once again Bulma was compelled to hug him and she did, her tears wetting the top of his head as she stood and awkwardly embraced Mirai's head.

"Oh you poor thing!" Bulma cried, "Don't tell me you're all alone now? Haven't you found a nice girl and settled down yet?"

A small smile touched Mirai's handsome face. She was just like his Kaasan all right. "Hai, Bulma-san, I did. I was married," he told her.

"Was? Past tense?" his younger self asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"My wife and newborn daughter died five years ago," Mirai told him. Now Bra was on her feet and hugging him as well, sobbing along side her mother for this lost 'brother's' loss.

"Please, please...Bulma-san, Bra-san. It's okay; it was a long time ago. Please don't cry for me," Mirai said helplessly as the two blue haired women hung off of his neck and cried. He looked to Trunks for help, but his younger self just shrugged saying he was on his own.

"Oh, that's so sad!" Bra wailed in Mirai's ear. To his credit he didn't wince even though she was painfully loud. Goten got up and gently pulled Bra off of him, her sobs drying up to sniffles as she leaned against his chest.

Vegeta watched his wife and daughter's embarrassing display of emotion with mild distaste. Bulma finally let go of Mirai's neck and wiped her eyes. Laughing a little at her outburst to try and lighten the mood of the room.

"I'm sorry, I didn't come here to make you upset or feel sorry for me, Bulma-san. I just needed to get away from there for awhile…too many bad memories," Mirai Trunks said. Bulma patted him on the shoulder.

"Hai, Hai…I know. I'm just a sentimental old woman now," she said with a chuckle. "You've had a long trip, why don't you go and rest before dinner, ne? Marron-chan, will you show Trunks where he'll be staying?"

Mirai got up and saw Marron close her laptop and jump gracefully down from the windowsill. She didn't really have any expression on her face as she motioned for him to follow her.

"Boy! Before you get too comfortable there's something we need to settle outside." Vegeta called after him. Mirai sighed. With Vegeta it had always been about strength and who was the best warrior, it didn't surprise Mirai at all that Vegeta would want to test his power first thing.

"Very well," Mirai said and followed his father outside instead. Better to just get it over with.


	3. Chapter three

"This should be good, ne Trunks?" Goten said happily. The two young men stood off to the side of the spacious yard outside Capsule Corp. and watched as Mirai Trunks shrugged out of his green CC jacket and handed it to Marron. "It's not everyday you get to watch your father kick your ass from the outside perspective."

"Shut it, baka!" Trunks snapped, insulted at the reminder he usually was not the victor when he sparred with his father. Goten laughed.

"What makes you think he's going to get his ass kicked, Ojisan? Trunks-san seems pretty strong," Pan asked.

"Yeah! Oi! Mirai-oniichan, kick his butt!" Bra called helpfully, ignoring the glare she received from her father.

If Mirai heard Bra's encouragement he gave no sign of it as he faced Vegeta, silently assessing his strength. While it was true there had been thirteen years of peace in Mirai's world that didn't mean that he had been lax in his training. He was much stronger now than when he'd defeated Cell.

Mirai could see Marron out of the corner of his eye standing slightly apart from the others holding his jacket. He had been stealing glances at her ever since he'd gone into the lab looking for Bulma, and instead found the slender blonde give Vegeta a dressing down on the vid screen. He'd been really surprised to learn she was Kuririn and Juuhachi-gou's daughter. It was hard for him to get past the fact that the monster who had killed his father and his friends in his time had redeemed herself and had a child in this one. He could see so much of Juuhachi-gou in her, there were small differences, but they had those same beautiful slanted ice blue eyes, that same corn silk hair…

"If you're through woolgathering…I expect you to hold nothing back," Vegeta sneered and dropped into a ready crouch. Mirai focused his attention back on his father and mirrored the stance.

"Let's go!" he said with a spare smile. Vegeta grinned horribly and his aura snapped up around him in golden fire as he went Super Saiyajin. Trunks matching the power level a moment later.

"HOLD IT! I don't think so!"

Father and Future Son both turned as Bulma stomped up as close as she dared, her arms folded across her chest crossly.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Woman?" Vegeta thundered at her. Bulma was unimpressed.

"You two can play who's the biggest Super-duper whatever all you want, but you're NOT going to do it here and CHEW up my lawn! We're having a wedding here in a few days Vegeta, in case you've forgotten and I don't want you destroying my flower beds," Bulma informed him in a tone that brooked no argument. "So either power down or take it on the road!"

With a snarl Vegeta took to the air speeding away from the golden dome. Mirai blinked a second before flying after him, Bulma had gotten much better at managing Vegeta over the years he observed.

"No way we're missing this!" Trunks said as he and Pan also took to the air following Vegeta and Mirai. Goten put his arm around Bra to carry her after them and noticed Marron looking after the retreating Mirai Trunks. He could carry Marron as well, but they would be much slower catching up to the others.

"Marron…need a lift?" Goten asked holding an arm out to the young blonde. She turned fathomless eyes to him and smirked.

"No," she said simply and shot up into the air after the others. Goten's mouth dropped open and he wrapped his arms around Bra and lifted off.

"Since when can Marron fly?" he wondered out loud.

Marron couldn't remember exactly when she had first discovered that there were 'differences' between her and other human girls. The first thing she remembered was learning that she was much stronger than a normal girl. Juuhachi-gou had discovered that when she accidentally slammed a six-year-old Marron's hand in the door of the aircar. Marron had been for the most part unhurt, but the door frame of the car had been bent. Kuririn had been adamant from her birth that Marron live a normal life and not learn the martial arts, but after Juuhachi-gou's discovery the Jinzouningen had begun training her to fight when Kuririn wasn't around.

Juuhachi-gou had made it clear to her daughter that she must keep her abilities a secret. Everyone just assumed that Marron was simply human and couldn't fight or fly, and so she had let them. It had been hardest to keep her secret when she was around Trunks and Goten and not want to jump into their spars and show them she could hold her own in basic fighting moves. Marron had never mastered any ki attacks however, since Juu didn't have ki and therefore was unable to train her in it. She had merely explained the theory of flying to her daughter, who caught on quickly.

Marron loved to fly and she did it whenever she could get away with it, it was her secret pleasure to just take off into the air and go. It was like having a secret identity, which she had now blown. She wasn't too worried about it though, now that her father was gone.

She caught up to Trunks and Pan as Goten and Bra caught up to her. Mid air she took Mirai's jacket and tied it around her waist. Trunks casually looked over thinking it was Goten and did a double take when he saw her, faltering a moment.

"Wow! Cool…" Pan said and gave her friend a smile and a thumbs up.

"Marron you're flying!" Trunks pointed out the obvious.

"Duh," she said keeping her eyes on Mirai and Vegeta up ahead. She was very interested in seeing what kind of power Mirai could throw around; he could be very helpful to her in finishing her invention.

"Since when?" Trunks asked incredulously. He had dated Marron for over three years and she'd never shown the slightest inclination of any kind of ki control. He'd always toted her sorry butt whenever they had gone anywhere Trunks flew.

"Since always," Marron shrugged matter of factly.

"What else have you been hiding from us? Next you'll tell me you can fight too right?" Trunks asked annoyed. It bugged him for some reason that Marron had kept this from him, she wasn't his girlfriend anymore so it wasn't like it mattered…but it irritated him anyway. He scowled in Marron's direction.

"Nope…just fly," Marron lied hearing the annoyance in the lavender haired man's voice. She jerked her chin ahead to where Mirai and Vegeta had found a clear area to spar.

"Fun's starting."

"Think you're stronger than me now boy?" Vegeta smirked looking Mirai over.

He was bigger than Vegeta remembered, bigger than his son with more muscle mass. Physically, he was only a few years older than the Trunks of this time, about thirty-five years old. But as Vegeta looked into Mirai's teal green gaze he would have guessed he was much older than that.

"We'll find out won't we?" Mirai said and attacked phasing out of Vegeta's vision as he came in low with a punch to the midsection. Vegeta easily dodged and countered with a kick to the younger man's back, but with surprising speed Mirai turned in midair and caught Vegeta's foot and twisted, tossing him away from him.

Vegeta landed nimbly a few feet away and smiled a bit. "You're faster," The older Saiyajin said and charged, throwing a punch to Mirai's face that he blocked with a forearm. Vegeta however, was one step ahead and while Mirai had been anticipating the punch he wasn't anticipating the knee to the midsection and he doubled over a bit. "Not fast enough though," Vegeta told him as he backed off.

"I thought you'd be better without that pig-sticker of yours by now," Vegeta taunted trying to rattle Mirai and make him careless like he did with Trunks, but Mirai was a more experienced fighter than his younger counterpart and didn't get angry quickly.

"Just getting warmed up," Mirai said and with a defiant scream powered up farther to level two, his already long golden spiked hair reaching even farther up and lightning crackled over his aura. Vegeta followed suit.

"Now you're talking."

On a nearby cliff the five bystanders watched with interest as the two fighters below took the spar to the next level. The cracks and booms of fists and feet meeting flesh and bone reverberated off the canyon walls. Mirai and Vegeta took the fight into the air almost moving too fast to see.

Vegeta threw a ki blast at Mirai that shattered a nearby rock formation when the latter swatted it away absently. Weaving a pattern across his chest with his arms he thrust his hands out before him, his thumbs and index fingers touching.

"BURNING ATTACK!" he shouted and released the blast. Vegeta rolled out of the way and swooped in, connecting with Mirai's jaw soundly.

"Oooo…that's two you can't do. Level two and that Burning thing," Goten pointed out to Trunks on the cliff. Trunks gritted his teeth in annoyance at his best friend as he watched the fight. His older self was much stronger than he was and he didn't like it. At first he was kind of amused to see the future version of him, but now the novelty was quickly wearing off, especially with Marron's snide remark about him being better looking and Goten pointing out that he was tougher than he was.

As if she knew what he was thinking Pan wrapped her arms around his waist and turned her face up to his scowling one. "He's not so great," she said in a voice intended for only Trunks to hear. Goten heard anyway and pointed excitedly to the fight.

"Are you kidding? I mean look at him! He's amazing!" Goten said and Trunks' glower got worse. Bra socked Goten in the shoulder and shook her head slightly when the Son boy looked at her. Goten's brain took a few seconds to process what she meant and then he broke out in a nervous grin, one hand behind his head. "Yeah, I mean he's not great, and its amazing Vegeta-san hasn't mopped the floor with him yet."

"Shut up, Goten," Trunks said.

Marron looked away from the little drama going on next to her with an inward smile. Trunks wasn't liking not being the center of attention. A little competition would do him good.

High above them the recipient of Trunks' ire was trying his best to hold his own against the Saiyajin Prince, because for all Mirai's experience against the androids; Vegeta still had thirty-four years experience on him and it was the deciding factor as Vegeta phased around Mirai's attack and with a two fisted blow to the back sent him crashing face first into the desert floor.

Mirai groaned and pulled himself out of the Trunks shaped hole he'd made to see Vegeta standing in front of him with his arm extended and palm facing him, ready to Big Bang him back to last Thursday. Mirai's eyes met the older Saiyajin's and he knew that he'd lost, if Vegeta chose to blast him there would be no way to dodge. Vegeta powered down and in an uncharacteristically friendly gesture offered Mirai a hand up. Mirai Trunks powered down as well his golden spikes returning to lavender as his hair fell past his shoulders.

"You'll do," Vegeta said gruffly when Mirai was on his feet. "Welcome back."

Mirai nodded, accepting the backhanded praise from Vegeta casually even though it meant as much to him now as it had when he'd met the man all those years ago. He felt a small lump of pride come to his throat as Vegeta turned and left without a backwards glance for home. Four of the five figures on the cliff followed Vegeta. Mirai dusted himself off as he heard Marron land lightly next to him.

"Wouldn't it have been easier to just drop your pants and see whose is bigger?" she asked sardonically and handed him his jacket. Mirai blinked at her a second and then laughed, the sound of which made Marron smile herself. "So you do laugh and smile…I was starting to wonder," she said to him. Mirai blushed a little under Marron's steady gaze.

"There still isn't much to laugh and smile about in my world," he shared, his smile fading slightly.

"I'm very sorry to hear about your family, Mirai," Marron said quietly. Mirai Trunks put his jacket on looking at her curiously. By unspoken agreement they jumped into the air to head back to Capsule Corporation.

"Mirai?" he questioned. Marron looked over at him, her face was expressionless but her eyes were warm.

"You're not anything like him…I don't think I can call you by his name," she told him honestly and then looked ahead to where the others were just tiny specks. Mirai gazed at her long blonde braid flying out behind her and her lithe body in her CC t-shirt and cutoff shorts. Despite looking so much like the android he'd grown up hating he had to admit she was very attractive. She gazed over at him again and he colored slightly at being caught looking at her.

"You're definitely nothing like him, Mirai…Trunks would never blush," she said with a laugh. "Come on! I'll race you back!" she called and put on a burst of speed. He grinned in response, if she wanted to call him Mirai that was fine with him. He caught up to her quickly and paced her.

"What do I get if I win?" he yelled over to her playfully. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Since there's only one bathroom in the guest house…you can have the shower first before dinner. But you haven't beaten me yet!" she yelled and went even faster, blowing past Goten and Bra like they were standing still. Mirai just a heartbeat behind and closing fast.

"Hey! Watch it!" Bra shouted after them shaking her fist and hanging on to Goten tighter. She turned back to her dark haired fiancé with a determined look. "That's it…you're teaching me to fly," she demanded and glared after the retreating Marron and Mirai Trunks.

Goten rolled his eyes over her blue head and sighed.


	4. Chapter four

"So what are you working on anyway?" Mirai Trunks asked folding his arms on the back of the chair he was straddling. Marron glanced over at him briefly from where she was hunched over a jumble of wires and small parts and gave him a crooked smile.

"It's a secret for now, but I was hoping that I could get your help to test it when I'm finished," she said and pushed her glasses up her nose.

Mirai watched her with a small smile as she worked, the tip of her tongue barely poking out of the corner of her mouth. He had been in this time for three days now, the next being Trunks and Pan's wedding. He had hoped to get to spend more time with Bulma-Kaasan, but with Trunks' wedding imminent and Bra's not far behind she was understandably preoccupied. Coupled with the glares he'd been receiving from his Chibi self, warning him to stay away from him, Mirai had pretty much been left to his own devices.

He'd ended up spending most of his time hanging around with Marron while she worked. The more he saw of the young blonde, the more he wanted to get to know her better. They had much in common, both having recently lost a parent, but truth be told Mirai just enjoyed her company. It was starting to bother him less and less; how much she resembled the android that helped to destroy his world. It was a long time ago now and Marron's mother was different than the Juuhachi-gou he had destroyed. Marron was different…she may have had the same eyes as Juuhachi-gou, but Marron's were warm, unlike the icy glaze of the Jinzouningen.

"You're doing it again…" she said without looking over at him.

"What's that?"

"Staring at me."

"Sorry," Mirai blushed; this wasn't the first time he'd been caught staring at her since he had arrived. It was hard to help it, she was very pretty with her waist length blonde hair and slender figure; he liked looking at her and watching her as her delicate hands moved confidently over the intricate wiring. He just didn't quite know how to tell her he found her attractive. Even at his age, he'd really never gotten better at expressing his feelings. Especially to the opposite sex.

"Anou…I was wondering why haven't you told anyone you can fight?" Mirai asked her, trying to change the subject and get his mind off of how her tank top and stretch pants hugged her curves.

She turned cat like eyes on him watching him warily. "What makes you think I can fight?" she demanded. .

"I can see it in the way you move, the way you handle yourself. Did Kuririn train you?" Mirai said with a shrug.

Marron put her tool down and turned her chair to face him with a sigh. "No, Papa never wanted me to learn the martial arts. My Kaasan trained me without him knowing about it. She warned me to keep it a secret so Papa would never know, but now that he's gone I suppose it doesn't really matter anymore."

"Do you want to spar together sometime?" Mirai asked, sounding far too eager to his own ears. _Baka mitai, you sound like a schoolboy!_ He admonished himself.

"I'm no challenge for you…I can't even use ki attacks," she told him with a snort.

"Really? Why not? You can fly…you're pretty fast too, I barely beat you the other day."

"My Kaasan is Jinzouningen remember? She has no ki. Her energy blasts are synthetic in origin, therefore she was unable to train me on how to use my own ki. The only reason I can fly is because she explained the theory of flight to me and I practiced…a lot. I can't tell you how many times I jumped off the roof at Kame House…I have the scars to prove it," she told him with a wry grin.

"_I_ could teach you," Mirai offered. Marron's eyes lit up, but her smile was even brighter.

"You would? Really? It would really help me gauge how well the _jinkouseki_ works if I can control my own ki," she babbled excitedly and rolled forward in her chair to throw her arms around his shoulders impulsively. Hugging him as best she could with the chair back between them.

"Artificial Barrier? What's that?" Mirai asked even as he was blinking in surprise at her closeness. Marron pulled her head back a bit to look at him and his face was scant inches from hers. She was suddenly having a hard time getting her brain to cooperate with her mouth as she looked into his azure eyes.

"Um…it's the…uh…what I've been working on…" she stammered a bit and blushed her arms being around him completely forgotten as Mirai made his move, inclining his head toward hers and he got almost to her lips…

"Oh, this is cute. I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Trunks snapped sarcastically from the doorway.

Marron leapt back from Mirai Trunks guiltily, her blush deepening. Mirai had his back to Trunks so his younger self couldn't see his matching flush. Marron saw that it was Trunks and frowned at him.

"What do you want?"

"Kaasan and Pan need you in the living room…something about final fittings on the bridesmaid dress," Trunks told her his eyes never leaving Mirai's back. Marron's eyes narrowed, she knew Trunks well enough to know he wouldn't have run all the way out to the Lab to fetch her for something so trivial, he would have used the vid screen. He was hoping to catch her with Mirai and it annoyed her. She got up from her chair and with a pointed look to Trunks leaned over and kissed Mirai on the cheek.

"I'll find you later so we can practice attacks, ne?" she whispered so Trunks couldn't hear. Mirai nodded.

"I'll be waiting," he replied softly. Marron brushed past Trunks who was still glaring at Mirai from the doorway.

"Waiting for what?" Trunks demanded when Marron was gone. Mirai turned in his chair and gave his younger self a curious look. The younger man's posture and slightly raised ki told him without saying that he didn't like him being around Marron.

"That's none of your business now is it?" he said mildly. Trunks bristled.

"Look, you just stay away from her. First my mother…now Marron. I don't like you moving in on my territory," Trunks scowled. Mirai felt his irritation grow a bit but he was much more adept at hiding it than the younger man.

"YOUR territory? Marron isn't _yours_," he pointed out. Trunks looked thunderous as his hands balled into fists. Mirai got up from the chair and made as if to leave the Lab. His younger self was still partially blocking the door as Mirai stood in front of him waiting for him to move.

"She was," Trunks said quietly still glowering at the older man before grudgingly moving aside. Mirai barely glanced at him as he walked past out into the midday sun.

"Can't have it both ways, Chibi," Mirai called over his shoulder before jumping into the air and flying off.

* * *

The sun made its westerly trek over the barren landscape of the desert causing deep purple shadows to crawl over the canyon floor. On the cliff above a lone figure sat cross-legged contemplating the landscape before him. The slight breeze lifted his long lavender hair off his neck and face. He'd taken to wearing it long in the last few years because he liked it that way, the younger version of him kept it cut short and at the moment Mirai was glad of any difference between himself and the younger no matter how slight.

Trunks' comments about Mirai invading his territory had bothered him more than he let on. It was true in a way, this was Trunks' time not his; Bulma was his mother not Mirai's. But to include Marron in that had irritated him for some reason. Trunks was going to marry Son Pan the next day, what right did he have to tell him to stay away from Marron? Mirai forced himself to calm down; anger would only make him foolish, a lesson he'd learned well in his many battles with the Jinzouningen. He wondered if he should even be allowing himself to be interested in Marron at all. He was just a visitor here; eventually he would have to return to his own time. How fair would it be to either of them to start something only to have it have to end? But he couldn't help it, he felt drawn to her. He'd almost kissed her in the lab; he'd wanted to very much in fact…maybe it was ultimately for the best that Trunks had interrupted them, but it didn't mean he had to like it. Frustrated; Mirai picked up a rock and threw it like a fastball off the cliff where it exploded into fragments on the canyon floor below kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Wow...I'd hate to be those lizards."

He was instantly on his feet, right hand already reaching behind him for the hilt of his sword as he turned. Marron stood a few feet behind him with her arms folded and one hip cocked to the side. She'd changed clothes he noticed and her outfit gave him pause, now she wore a black t-shirt and leggings with a short denim skirt and boots. Her waist length hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail. In those clothes, and in that pose for one horrible second Mirai thought he was looking at Juuhachi-gou. She came closer to him, worry creasing her brow and the illusion was gone.

"You okay, Mirai?" she asked. He let his hand fall away from his sword hilt and relaxed.

"Hai, I'm fine…you just startled me. I didn't sense you coming."

"Hmmm…you looked pretty engrossed in throwing that rock," she said dryly. "What were you thinking about?"

"Trunks," his face twisted in annoyance. It bothered him that Chibi Trunks had gotten under his skin that way; Mirai was usually in better control of his feelings than that.

"What did Wonderboy do this time?" Marron asked and sat on a nearby rock. Mirai half turned away from her stuffing his hands into the pockets of his baggy black pants. His attire had changed little over the years and Mirai still favored the black clothes he'd always worn. The biggest difference from his past visit was his CC jacket was now of a slightly different style and green instead of blue.

"He said he doesn't like me 'moving in on his territory' is the way I believe he put it. His territory including Bulma-Kaasan…and you," Mirai finished.

Marron's features hardened in anger. "Bakayaro! Who the hell does he think he is?" she snapped. "He has no claim on me anymore…he's Pan's problem now."

"He wants me to stay away from you," Mirai told her with a rueful smile. Marron's eyes snapped fire as they met his.

"I hope you told him to get bent."

Mirai chuckled. "Well, I didn't quite put it that way, but I told him to mind his own business." Marron grinned savagely.

"Aa…so that's why he came back from the lab with his boxers all in a bunch. Good for you Mirai," she hopped up from the rock then, her small hands fisted. "He makes me so mad sometimes…sorry, I know he's you, but he can be such a…dork!" she growled.

Mirai shrugged. "Don't need to apologize to me, I agree with you," he pulled an elastic band from his pocket and tied his hair back. "Come on, let's not waste daylight talking about him…let's go spar. I'm probably uninvited to his bachelor party by now anyway," Mirai joked and took off for a level spot a short distance away. Marron followed silently and landed lightly beside him. He glanced over at her as she still scowled about Trunks, her hands fisted on her slender hips.

"You wouldn't be missing much, just Trunks and Goten getting hammered and acting like morons," she muttered grumpily.

"You should probably tie your hair back a little better. You don't want it to get in the way in a fight," Mirai offered. She glanced up at his hair where the entire front section hung free of his ponytail. She reached up and tugged lightly on a lavender lock, grinning at him.

"I'll risk it. Besides, I thought you were going to be teaching me ki attacks."

"I want to test your skills in fighting first so I have a better idea of where to start. Besides to learn to master your ki you need a calm frame of mind at first…which I don't think either of us has," Mirai said noting her drawn down eyebrows. He took off his sword and jacket, placing them in a neat pile in an out of the way spot.

He faced her and took a ready stance. "Ready? Let's see what you've got then…and don't be afraid to give it your all," he called encouragingly to her.

Marron raised her fists, her elbows still at her sides, automatically taking the stance she'd learned from her mother. She gave the handsome warrior in front of her a small smile and disappeared.

Marron pushed off the ground and closed the short distance to Mirai in a heartbeat, already working out a strategy in her mind. There was no way she could beat him on brute strength alone, but she had one advantage that he didn't know about: she was fast. Faster than he thought she was, she had let him beat her to the shower that first day. She schooled her face into an expressionless mask to keep him from anticipating her moves as she closed in on him. She launched into a barrage of punches and kicks driving Mirai back even as he blocked every one. She swept her leg out to knock his out from under him and he back flipped over it. She pursued and when he landed she was right there with a hard punch to the midsection that doubled him over slightly.

She swung another punch at him and he caught her fist in his hand, she swung the other and he caught that one as well.

"Not too bad…but when's the last time you actually sparred with a person?" he asked. Marron bared her teeth as she pushed and pulled trying to get her hands free.

"Two years ago…before Papa died and Kaasan left. But I practice nearly everyday," she told him through gritted teeth as she tried to push him off balance, but he was bigger than she was and stayed as steady as a rock, pushing back. She started to push again and waited until he pushed back and then she pulled, dropping onto her back and flipping him over her causing him to let go of her hands. She was on her feet in a second as was Mirai. He gave her an approving look and beckoned her to attack again.

Marron shot across the ground again another small smile gracing her lips in anticipation. She watched Mirai's face to read what he would do next and saw his eyes widen slightly, and then narrow dangerously. She managed to throw only one punch before he went on the offensive, his lavender hair spiking up gold around him and his eyes turning a pupiless teal. It took all of her concentration and skill to block the fury of his assault, but even then she took some bone shattering blows that would have seriously injured a normal girl.

She looked up at him to ask him why he was trying to kick the stuffing out of her and saw an expression on his face that made her mouth dry up. The Juuhachi-gou of his world had seen that look; it was the last thing she had seen. Mirai was looking at her, but he wasn't seeing her at the moment. He was only seeing Juuhachi-gou. He kicked her violently away from him and she landed a few feet away with a grunt. She picked herself up and looked over her shoulder at him to see him weaving his arms over his chest in an intricate pattern.

"Che…" she muttered and tried to dodge.

"BURNING ATTAAACK!"

Marron got mostly out of the way, the blast grazing her side and scorching her, burning part of her shirt away and sending her flying. She jumped back to her feet just evading the kick to the ribs she'd have received if she'd been a heartbeat slower. She had to snap him out of this or he could kill her.

"Mirai! Stop!" she yelled at him as she jumped back again to avoid a two fisted blow to the midsection. She still wasn't reaching him, the battle fury evident in his expression as he flew at her. She flew backwards in front of him with one hand holding her injured side. Eyes narrowing, she reversed and flew back into him, coming up under his extended arm and ramming her shoulder into his sternum knocking them both back and to the ground.

"Trunks! Quit it! It's me, Marron!" she yelled into his face trying to hold him down. Recognition flooded his eyes slowly as he powered down, his lavender hair falling into his face. He reached up and touched her face confused.

"Mar-Marron? Wh-what happened? Are you all right?" Mirai asked, concern clouding his beautiful sky blue eyes.

"Hai…I'll be fine. You just tried to flash fry me is all," she told him with a wince as she rolled off of him and sat up.

"Let me see," he said sitting up with her and leaning over to see her side, gently pulling her hand away. Through the hole in her t-shirt he could see her skin was reddened and blistered, but it could have been much worse. He closed his eyes tightly in remorse for hurting her.

"I'm so sorry, Marron…I didn't mean to it's just that…" he whispered through gritted teeth, his head still bowed and his hair falling over his eyes.

"…You thought I was Juuhachi-gou, didn't you?" she asked mildly. Mirai nodded still not looking at her. Marron suspected as much, there had been several times in the past few days she'd seen him looking at her in strange ways, she suspected it must be hard for him to accept that the Juuhachi-gou of this time hadn't been all bad. She reached out and cupped his chin in her hand making him look at her.

"I'm not Juuhachi-gou," she said softly. She wasn't angry at him for blasting her -her mother had beaten her worse in some of the fights they'd had when Juu was training her- she just wanted Mirai to look at her and see HER, not her mother.

"I know you aren't. It's just for a minute, in that outfit you looked just like her," he said lamely attempting to explain. Marron's pale cool fingers still touched his cheek, making his skin tingle and his breath catch slightly. When he was this near to her there was no confusion as to who she was.

"Ah, got it. Tossing this outfit then," she teased gently. He brought his hand up to hers that touched his face and held it.

"I can't tell you how sorr-" he tried to say.

"Stop apologizing…we were sparring. I've gotten worse sunburns. I'm not a china doll…I won't break that easily," she kept her tone light trying to cajole Mirai out of the somber expression he wore. She squeezed his hand briefly before pulling away.

"So did I pass?" she asked her eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Pass what?"

"Basic fighting 101…I did get a few good shots in on you before you tried to make me a crispy critter, you know." Mirai winced a little at the mental picture he got before returning her smile.

"Hai, you passed."

"Good, I'll do better now that I have someone to spar with," she said confidently.

"I don't think- I mean it might not be a good idea if we spar," he stammered. Marron leveled a finger at him.

"No way, you promised to teach me to control my ki. I'm holding you to it."

He took in a deep breath; he could have killed her today all because he'd had a horrible flashback while fighting her. What if it happened again? He'd never forgive himself if he hurt her again. He looked into her hopeful face and wide blue eyes…how could he have ever confused her with that monster? He mentally shook himself_. I can't think that way anymore! Despite how I feel about it, Juuhachi-gou is her mother. Not the same as the one I killed._

"All right," he relented. Behind him the sun was setting painting the sky and desert in scarlet and coral, bathing Marron in its light and turning her golden hair to fire as she smiled happily at him that he would teach her.

With a boldness he hadn't demonstrated with anyone, not even his late wife, he took her face in his hands and gently pulled her toward him and kissed her, acting on his earlier desire from the lab. She molded herself to his chest as she kissed him back her eyes sliding closed and arms winding around his neck.

She gave a contented little sigh when they parted, his arms still around her. She brushed the hair out of his eyes.

"We should get back…dinner will be soon and I should probably change my shirt ne?" she murmured a small smile touching her lips. He'd rather sit here on the desert floor and kiss her, but he nodded and got up pulling her with him.

"So does this mean you'll be my 'date' for the wedding tomorrow?" she asked him when they had retrieved his jacket and sword and were flying back toward home. He hadn't planned on going to the wedding now because of the building tension between he and his younger counterpart and Marron knew it. He looked over at her flying next to him, her blonde hair flying out behind her like a banner and her cool gaze on him and couldn't refuse.

"Trunks won't like it," he pointed out.

"Even better," she said and flew a loop around him laughing gaily.

* * *

"Wow…" Pan panted as Trunks rolled off of her and lay next to her breathing heavily. "You certainly were…motivated this afternoon," she teased, running her fingers lightly over his chest. Trunks caught her hand and brought it to his face, kissing her fingers lightly before he got up.

Pan leaned on her elbow and watched him as he got some clean clothes out of his dresser for after he showered. Pan knew he was angry and that it had to do with Mirai Trunks being here, as he had been fine before the older version of himself showed up. He'd scowled all through the bridesmaid's fittings and final run through of the ceremony this afternoon. The first chance she'd gotten to ask him what was wrong he'd dragged her off to his room…not that she was complaining mind you, far from it. He'd been exceptionally passionate with her this afternoon making her look forward to her honeymoon even more.

She noticed the tension was still in his shoulders as he slammed his dresser drawer shut and ran his hand through his hair.

"So, are you going to tell me what's wrong or make me guess?" Pan asked him.

Trunks looked over his shoulder at her and gave her a crooked grin. "Can't put anything past you can I?" he asked sitting on the edge of the bed next to her.

"Nope. Spill it," she sat up and leaned against his back wrapping her arms around his waist and kissing his shoulder blade. "It's about Mirai Trunks, ne?"

Her fiancé nodded brushing his purple bangs off of his forehead by habit, he'd just gotten his hair trimmed for tomorrow.

"I don't want him here…hanging around Kaasan and Marron like he has a right to. He's not me!"

Pan sighed, she loved Trunks with all her heart, but there were times his ego made her want to just kick his butt and teach him some humility. Luckily she was still wrapped in her blissful afterglow so there was no need to pound some sense into him…for the moment.

"Don't worry…after tomorrow we'll be gone on our honeymoon for two weeks and he'll probably be gone by then," she told him reassuringly.

"And if he isn't?"

Pan pulled him backwards and kissed him soundly making him forget Mirai and everything else but her for a moment. She pulled back and smiled at him, her shoulder length dark hair tickling his cheek. "You worry too much," she said with another kiss.

Before Trunks could say anything a sneeze caught him unaware. Pan frowned.

"You aren't getting sick are you?"

"Either that or somebody's talking about me," Trunks said. He looked back at Pan sitting naked on his bed, her dark eyes inviting and grinned. "C'mere you…" he growled playfully.

She backed up as he advanced across the bed toward her with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"Uh uh! Dinner is soon…and your bachelor party…" she cried, trying to think up excuses as she evaded his grasp. He caught her around the waist and pulled her back against him kissing her neck.

"Let 'em wait," he purred in her ear.


	5. Chapter five

The wedding of the President of Capsule Corporation to the granddaughter of Mr. Satan brought every journalist and photographer with a pulse to the boundary walls of CC hoping for a glimpse of the bride and groom. Specifically because of this Trunks and Pan had held their ceremony in the late afternoon so that by the time the reception rolled around it would be dark, thereby foiling the paparazzi.

Bulma had gone all out for the wedding reception sparing no expense. She had even managed to bully and cajole Vegeta into a tuxedo without having to sell Marron into perpetual Gravity Room repair slavery. For this the young blonde inventor was eternally grateful. Everyone was having a wonderful time at the wedding except for her, the entire bridesmaid ordeal being just a tad too 'girly' for her comfort level. She'd give anything to sneak away to the lab and work on her project, but Bulma had ultimately out foxed her and locked her out.

She looked around the reception for Mirai, but didn't see him. She really hadn't had a chance to talk to him since they had gotten back from their spar the evening before. After dinner he had allowed himself to be drug along by Goten to Trunks' bachelor party and hadn't gotten back until well after Marron was asleep.

Finally blissfully free of picture and dancing obligations Marron snuck away from the reception hoping for a moment alone to catch her breath. With a glance around to make sure no one saw her, she flew up to sit on the roof of the Capsule Corporation dome. When she got there she saw she wasn't the only one with that idea. Goten and Bra were already there and judging from the current focus of their attention they weren't looking for company. Marron turned away embarrassed at having caught them in an intimate moment. She was levitating back down when she caught sight of Mirai Trunks walking away from the reception into the trees. He looked as uncomfortable as Marron felt in his borrowed jacket and tie from Trunks. It was yet another way that Mirai was different than Trunks, she noted. Mirai would never look comfortable in anything but the black pants and tank top he usually wore…he was a little too untamed for a suit. Trunks on the other hand looked perfectly at home in his tuxedo.

Marron landed on the ground softly and followed Mirai into the trees being as silent as she could despite the rustle of her dress. Pan's bridesmaids had all worn the same style of dress, just a long sleeveless sheath with a matching sheer overdress, but in different pastel colors. Bra had the sky blue dress and Marron had gotten the lavender. Pan had tried to put her in pink, but Marron had put her foot down. Up ahead of her she saw Mirai shrug out of the too small suit jacket and loosen his tie before floating up to sit on a branch of a tree.

"You are one lousy date did you know that?" Marron addressed the tree, hands on her hips. She looked up into the branches of the tree trying to see him in the dark. His white shirt and pale hair glowed against his dark skin in the ambient light from the nearby party. As her eyes adjusted to the deeper shadows she could see he was smiling at her.

"Am I? Sorry about that…I haven't been on a date before," Mirai said embarrassed. She cocked her head to the side as she peered up at him. She looked beautiful in the lavender dress, her hair held back with flowers and spilling in long curls down her back.

"Really?" she asked in disbelief and then floated up into the tree to sit beside him, taking care not to snag her dress or she'd never hear the end of it from Bulma-san. "I mean you _were_ married…" she pointed out and bumped him lightly with her shoulder companionably.

"Really. Mina and I never had a traditional courtship," he told her.

"What was she like, if you don't mind my asking?" Mirai leaned against the tree trunk and closed his eyes, remembering Mina as he had been doing all evening since the wedding ceremony. In the years after he defeated the Jinzouningen and the initial recovery was underway, Mirai noticed that he had become a celebrity of sorts; everyone knew of Bulma the genius of Capsule Corporation and her son who had saved the world. The gratitude people -especially women- lavished on him embarrassed Mirai, being rather shy and serious by nature. When girls would throw themselves at him, and they inevitably did -not only had he saved the world, but he was handsome too- he would gracefully turn them down. There had been only a few times when loneliness and need had caused him to accept…one of those times had been Mina. She had been everything Mirai was not: she was as bubbly and vivacious as Mirai was quiet and serious; she was as frail as he was strong, as vivid as he was pale with her fiery red hair and green eyes. She had pursued him relentlessly until she had finally worn him down with her chipper personality and persistence. When she had gotten pregnant Mirai had done what honor – though not his feelings - had bound him to do. He was fond of Mina and they became good friends in the time they were together, but he didn't know if it would have ever grown into something more had she lived.

"I didn't mean to stump you," Marron said with a smile when he didn't speak. Mirai opened his eyes and looked at the young blonde woman next to him, her pale hair shining in the weak light that reached the tree.

"You didn't…I was just thinking about her. She was pretty and cheerful and kind, everyone loved her." Something in Mirai's voice made Marron peer at him closer.

"Did you?" she asked insightfully. Mirai looked away toward the reception, the glow of the lights and the music barely reaching them in the tree. He'd always convinced himself that he must have loved her a little since he married her, but he had never felt with Mina the way he did when he was around Marron, had never felt the same attraction…but Mina had been his wife and he would never dishonor her memory by saying she hadn't been his love.

"She was my wife," he replied softly and his tone and posture told Marron what he wouldn't say in words. He was proud. In this way he was more like Vegeta than Trunks was. Trunks had Vegeta's arrogance; Mirai seemed to have his strength and honor.

"I understand, Mirai. I didn't mean to pry," she said gently as Mirai smiled and put his arm around her shoulders.

"You didn't. And I'm sorry I'm a lousy date, let me know what I'm supposed to do and I'll try harder." She smiled secretly in the dark, putting his arm around her was a damn good start.

"You haven't danced with me yet," she told him.

"Ano…I don't know how," he said apologetically. She rolled her eyes at him in mock exasperation and jumped carefully down from the tree branch. Mirai followed and stood in front of her nervously, not sure what to do with his hands. She stepped up close to him, so close he could smell the flowers in her hair and the light perfume of her soap and took his hand putting it on her waist. She laced her fingers with his and put her free hand on his shoulder and started to sway to the music wafting through the trees to them. After a few minutes Mirai relaxed and seemed to get the hang of it.

"See? Nothing to it, you're a natural," she said and tipped her face up to look at him. He wasn't very much taller than she was in her heels, the top of her head level with his eyes. He smiled uncertainly; he was a warrior not a dancer and he was pretty sure she was just flattering him. "Ready to move up to advanced?" she asked mischievously. He swallowed wondering what she meant. Marron took another step closer to him and wound her arms around his waist, resting her head against his shoulder. A second later she felt his arms around her and they moved to the music together under the trees.

"This doesn't seem any more difficult than the other," Mirai joked as he held her against him. She chuckled softly.

"Caught. It isn't."

Mirai lowered his face to hers and brushed his lips over hers gently. He felt her cool hand at the back of his neck as she pulled his face closer and deepened their kiss, her tongue lightly sweeping across his lower lip before he responded in kind. Her mouth was sweet and soft as he explored it, his tongue twining gently with hers. He pulled her more fully against him and desire built at the feel of her supple body molding to his. She was a little breathless when their kiss broke. He smiled at her and was lowering his face back to hers when they heard Bra nearby calling for Marron, telling her the bouquet toss and cake cutting were starting. Mirai groaned a little.

"We just can't catch a break can we?" Marron said and ran her fingers through Mirai's loose hair briefly.

"Don't answer," he said impulsively and kissed her again. She stepped back regretfully and touched his cheek.

"I have to go…duty calls. Later perhaps?" she questioned. Mirai gave her a little grin and turned his face kissing her fingertips as she pulled away.

"You know where to find me."

"That I do," she chuckled and blew him a kiss before disappearing through the trees like a wood sprite.

Bra was standing at the tree line waiting for her, hands planted on her hips and looking for the entire world like a miniature version of her mother. She gave Marron a knowing look when she came out of the trees a moment later.

"And just WHAT were you doing back there…hmmmmm?" Bra asked archly. Marron turned her expressionless face to the younger girl, eyes narrowed.

"The same thing you were doing on the roof…only I kept my dress down," Marron told her hotly with a raised eyebrow and kept walking. Bra followed her, looking around and hoping her father hadn't overheard.

"Keep your voice down! Jeez…you're awful touchy. I was just teasing," Bra said catching up to her. Marron sighed and gave her a crooked smile.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap." Marron sighed. "I've just had your brother's purple head all up in my business this week too and it's got me a little defensive."

Bra grinned. "Which brother?" she teased.

"Smart Ass…you know very well which one, that strutting peacock over there with cake all over his face," Marron said pointing to where Trunks and Pan were supposed to be feeding each other bites of wedding cake, but Pan seemed determined to make him wear it instead.

Bra looked over where her brother was advancing on Pan with a handful of cake and an evil grin, while the latter howled with laughter at her new husband's cake encrusted appearance and tried to get away.

Marron folded her arms and watched the spectacle. "Why does everything turn into a food fight with them?" Bra mirrored the pose and the disapproving look. "I hope you and Goten will show a little more restraint at your wedding…but knowing Goten I doubt it," Marron said.

"Hnh." Bra grunted noncommittally a guilty look crossing her face that Marron didn't see. "Marron…are you interested in Mirai-oniisan because you still love Ani-chan?" Bra blurted out changing the subject. Marron's eyes widened in surprise.

"What a bizarre question, Bra…" Marron told her. Bra held her hands up and shrugged. Marron looked away, watching Trunks smile at Pan as she laughingly wiped cake off his face with a napkin. It was true she'd been very much in love with Trunks when they had been together, but she had grown as a person and moved on since then. She was the first to admit that Pan was the better match for him -far better than Marron had ever been- Trunks and Pan suited each other. "…But the answer is no. I haven't been in love with your brother for a really long time," Marron said with a small smile as she watched him with Pan. He may annoy the hell out of her with his proprietary attitude toward her, but he was still her friend.

"Saa…then why are you interested in Mirai-oniisan then if it isn't because he's Trunks?" Bra asked trying to understand. Marron looked down at her again, her expression unfathomable.

"He's like the night to Trunks' day. Like a stranger with a familiar face…it's all the ways that he's _not_ like Trunks that make me like him," Marron said enigmatically.

A few hours later when the final toast was made, the bouquet and garter tossed, and the happy couple had been seen off, Marron was finally able to escape her tenure as bridesmaid and slip away. She still burned with irritation over an encounter with Chibi Trunks she'd had a while earlier. He and Pan had been leaving to go on their honeymoon and were saying goodbye to everyone when Trunks gave her a hug, whispering into her ear he wanted her to stay away from Mirai. She'd whispered back if he wanted to enjoy his honeymoon with his new wife he'd do well to butt out of her business.

She stomped to the guesthouse where she lived still seething. The first thing she wanted to do was get the hell out of the damned bridesmaid dress. She stalked down the hall into her room, noticing the light was still on in Mirai's…was he waiting for her? She yanked the dress off and pulled the flowers out of her carefully arranged hair angrily, letting it fall in waves down her back. She changed into her short cotton nightgown, as it was a warm night.

She paced her room in agitation. She couldn't deny that she felt an attraction and connection to Mirai that went far beyond just the physical. She could fall in love with him so easily...hell, she was halfway there already. She certainly didn't need Trunks trying to tell her what to do. She wasn't a naïve child after all; she knew how things were. Eventually Mirai Trunks would have to go back to his own time and she would lose him. Forever.

Marron put her hand on the wall that separated their rooms. It would be so simple; she could just open his door and walk in and give herself to him… to act on what was building between them; to try and ease the aching loneliness she saw in his eyes when he thought she wasn't looking. It was the same loneliness she felt now that her parents were gone, the same void she filled working long hours in the lab for Bulma and after hours on her own inventions. So easy to just go and lose herself in eyes as blue as the summer sky and hair like violet silk…to wrap herself in his heat. She gave a miserable little chuckle as she rested her head against the wall. If it was so damn easy why wasn't she doing it?

_Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all._ She quoted to herself as she sat on her bed by the window and pulled her knees up to her chest. _Would you be worth it, Mirai? Could whatever days or weeks I might have with you last me the rest of my lifetime without you? Or will you take my heart with you when you go? _

She looked out the window at the moonless sky and leaned against the cold glass. She was weak; she knew the answers to her questions even as she asked them… Yes. He would be worth it. Marron closed her eyes, now all she had to do was summon the nerve to take that risk, that first step that would take her to him.

With the true instincts of a warrior, Mirai Trunks was awake the instant the door opened soundlessly. His sword was within easy reach, a lifetime of habit ingrained to be ever watchful even in times of peace. He was only mildly surprised that it was Marron who crept on cat like feet into his room in the middle of the night. He had heard her come home hours before and had waited for this in both anticipation and dread, dread because he wanted her. Even though he knew he couldn't stay…that it couldn't last.

He watched her from the deep shadows of the bed as she leaned against the door a moment, bathed in the starlight from the window. She looked as if made of starlight, her beauty cold in its coloring -white gold hair, alabaster skin and china blue eyes- but there was a fire in her as well, just below the surface that threatened to consume him. He'd felt that fire twice now when he'd kissed her. Icy hot beauty.

She padded across the room silently to stand beside the bed, luminous in her short white gown. "You're awake," she guessed softly even though she couldn't see his eyes. Mirai let two even breaths pass before he answered.

"Hai."

The silence stretched out between them as Marron looked down on him, he was just a darker shape against the glowing blue white of the sheets in weak window light. She bit her lip struggling for what to say, he hadn't moved since she came in and seemed as reluctant as she was to speak.

"I don't want to be alone," she whispered finally.

She was starting to think she had made a mistake…that she shouldn't have come when she heard him move. He slid back on the bed to make room and held the covers back. She slipped between them and into his arms, pressing herself into his warmth and tucking her head under his chin as he lay on his side facing her, his long hair tickling her cheek. Mirai closed his eyes tightly as he felt his resolve weaken and he held her tighter.

"Neither do I."


	6. Chapter six

Marron wiped her hand across her forehead leaving a smear of grease on her high white brow. She was an inventor and scientist not a mechanic, but here she was first thing on Monday morning fixing Vegeta's Gravity Room. The Capsule Corp. compound seemed unnaturally quiet now that the mayhem of the wedding and its preparations were over; just the drone of the electronic servants as they went about the business of making it look as if there had never been a wedding at all. _Maybe life can get back to normal now,_ Marron thought even as she knew it was an impossibility. Life would never be the same. She hadn't been physically intimate with Mirai yet, but it was only a matter of time. It was an inevitability that neither of them seemed able or willing to avoid. The last two nights since the wedding she had slept in his bed with him just taking selfish pleasure in his presence as he did in hers, wrapped in each other's embrace. They never spoke of his leaving or what it meant, but it was on Marron's mind quite a bit. Something he had said the first day he arrived in her time kept running over and over in the back of her mind.

A shadow fell across her where she was crouched behind the main gravity generator. She growled low in her throat, this was the third time Vegeta had interrupted her wanting to know when she'd be done. She still had to fix one of the deflectors near the ceiling. "I told you! It'll be done when it's done!" she snapped without turning around.

"I believe you!" Mirai laughed at her holding his hands up. She looked back over her shoulder at him guiltily, her glasses sliding down her nose.

"Sorry 'bout that, Mirai. I thought you were Vegeta-san." He leaned against the wall next to her with arms folded and watched her as she went back to work, mumbling to the generator that it should learn to duck when fired on. Mirai smiled as she managed to smear more grease on her nose when she pushed her glasses up. "I thought you were going to spend this morning with Bulma-san?" she asked him without looking up as she stripped some wiring.

"Hai, unfortunately Bulma-Kaasan had to go into CC headquarters. Since Chibi's on his honeymoon, she said someone had to go and run things," he sighed. She glanced up at the tone of disappointment in his voice.

"I'm sorry you haven't gotten to spend much time with her…its just bad timing. Not that you could have known…I just hope this trip hasn't been too big of a waste of time for you," she said making her final wiring connections and shutting the panel. She stood, putting her tools back in the pocket of her white lab coat in a vain attempt to keep from getting grimy before brushing off her hands. "There…that should do it for tha—" she started as she turned away from the panel only to be silenced by Mirai's mouth closing over hers. Her eyes widened in surprise behind her glasses as he buried his hands in her hair and kissed her. She could feel herself blushing as he deepened the kiss and her eyes slid closed as she wrapped her arms around him.

"It's not a waste of time…I got to meet you," he whispered when their kiss broke and she blushed again, her eyes downcast. Was he trying to make it harder on her? Why did he have to be so wonderful that she had no choice but to love him? She stepped away and started to go get the ladder to reach the ceiling and the broken deflector until she remembered that her flying ability wasn't a secret any longer. She floated up to the ceiling and glanced down at Mirai standing there with his hands in his pockets, looking up at her with a small smile on his face that made her stomach do acrobatics. He had his pale hair back in his usual ponytail that half of his hair refused to participate in it seemed as well as his customary tank top and sleeveless short blue vest. She grinned when she noticed the smear of grease on his cheek from her nose before she started working on the deflector – the sooner she finished the sooner she could work on finishing her invention.

Mirai floated up next to her watching her as she worked. He'd been doing that for days…just watching her while she did the most mundane things as if they were fascinating, occasionally asking questions or offering insights -being the son of Bulma he had a fair knowledge of basic machinery- but mostly just watching. It had made her nervous at first, but she was used to it now and would just talk to him as she worked. She found his presence comforting.

"We sparring today?" she asked him, squinting her eyes at a booger of a circuit she was trying to reconnect, the tip of her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. She needed three hands, one to hold the bloody thing and two to make the delicate circuitry work. "Mirai…can you hold this?" she asked him. He drifted around behind her and reached over her shoulder to hold the tiny circuit in place. He was right behind her and Marron could feel his breath on her neck and the warmth of him where his bare arm almost touched her cheek. She took a deep breath as she felt her skin gooseflesh. She narrowed her eyes to concentrate on reattaching the tiny wires with her multi tool and felt herself start to lose altitude.

"Shit_…"_ she muttered under her breath. Mirai brought one knee up under her and rested his other hand on her waist, making a seat of sorts for her. She gave him a sideways look under her lashes, mumbling her thanks. Her hands shook as she tried twice to make the connection. She blushed, feeling it must be obvious to him why her hands shook. After the third attempt failed she laughed nervously and looked at him. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…" she said unable to tear her eyes away from his. He tucked a strand of hair that had come loose from her braid behind her ear and gave her a small smile.

"We can make this work," he said and Marron suddenly wondered if there wasn't more meaning to his words as he leaned in and gave her a light kiss. "Switch with me." Marron blinked a second before she realized what he meant. She slipped around behind him and held the circuit with her arm over his left shoulder now, handing him the delicate tools over his right shoulder and trying not to pay attention to the way her breasts brushed lightly against his back or the smell of his hair and skin. She closed her eyes and did algorithms in her head to take her mind off of it.

"Got it," Mirai said in a thick voice. Marron backed off and to the side to check his work. He had his head slightly lowered when she turned around to compliment him on the delicate work he'd done, his hair covering his face. She drifted closer and peered at him ducking her head to see him. He was blushing furiously. She grinned; it was nice to know she had a similar affect on him as he had on her. She dipped in and gave him a quick hard kiss and a matching grease smudge on his other cheek.

"Oh my God! You are so cute when you blush!" she teased and laughed merrily closing the panel on the reflector. Mirai tried to scowl at her for teasing him, but couldn't. She drifted to the floor of the Gravity Room still looking up and laughing at him. She brought her head down and found herself eye to eye with the Saiyajin Prince. Vegeta regarded her coldly, arms folded over his chest.

"If you're through _playing_…Jinzouning-jo," he said contemptuously. Marron tried to meet his eyes defiantly, but was unable. Ever since she had begun working for Bulma she had taken one kind of verbal abuse and insults or another from Vegeta. Usually he pointed out how weak and useless he thought her father had been, or how he should have turned her mother into something useful like a refrigerator when he'd had the chance. He'd never liked it when she'd been with Trunks...saying she wasn't fit company for his son. She didn't think he'd be that much happier about her cavorting around with this one either. She ducked her head embarrassed and mumbled something about trying to keep the GR in one piece for more than a week and hurried toward the door.

"Marron!" she heard Mirai call from behind her. She paused at the door and turned seeing him land lightly in front of Vegeta. "Yes, we're training later," he said to her, but his eyes never left Vegeta's. Marron nodded and was gone, her long braid trailing out behind her.

"Training? Her? What a waste of time," Vegeta snorted when Marron had gone. Mirai folded his arms as well, watching as Vegeta adjusted his presets on the main console. "Worthless Jinzouning-jo doesn't even have any ki."

Mirai felt the muscles in his jaw clench slightly in irritation, but he refused to let his father's contempt provoke him. "She has a name. Why don't you try using it?"

Vegeta raised an eyebrow at him and switched the gravity on to 300X normal Earth gravity. Mirai was unfazed. In his time it was Vegeta's original Gravity Room that he trained in alone, and he could withstand much higher. Vegeta gave an imperceptible nod of approval in Mirai's direction. It seemed the boy had kept up his training when he went back to his own time. Trunks could barely withstand this much gravity now…he had gotten soft in Vegeta's mind.

"Mind who you're talking to, Boy," Vegeta snapped automatically and dropped into a fighting stance before Mirai. Mirai Trunks just stood there in the same position, powerful arms folded across his chest as he regarded Vegeta stonily. Vegeta was still as hard and as cold as Mirai remembered with no regard for anyone who wasn't useful to him. It was sad, really.

"So we're doing this again are we?" Mirai said and slowly took his fighting stance. "Don't assume the outcome will be the same, Father," Mirai said and charged, powering up to Super Saiyajin as he did it. Vegeta met his power level and assault with a welcome smile. Perhaps he could get a decent workout from the boy. Dende knew his own son had become embarrassingly lax in his training, either working for Bulma's ridiculous company or chasing around after Kakarrott's granddaughter.

Vegeta barely blocked Mirai's punches and ki blasts as the golden haired warrior moved faster than Vegeta had anticipated given the gravity setting. Previously when he had sparred with his future son the young man had held back, even when Vegeta fought him the first day he arrived in this time. But now as Mirai connected with a series of ki blasts, Vegeta knew he wasn't holding back at all. Vegeta smirked inwardly. _So he doesn't like me insulting the Jinzouningen's brat. Let's see if we can't exploit that weakness._

"I fail to see what the attraction is…first Trunks and now you. What is it about that little blonde twitch anyway? At least Trunks finally came to his senses and got rid of her…she's not fit to consort with a Princeling. Either of you," Vegeta taunted, trying to get a rise out of Mirai when they paused in their sparring, each assessing the others strength. Mirai bared his teeth at him and Vegeta went in for the kill expecting Mirai's anger to make him hasty. He managed to slip under Mirai's defenses and bring a knee up into the younger man's stomach. Mirai caught his leg and threw him away from him before renewing his attack He caught Vegeta in a headlock and held the struggling Saiyajin Prince there.

"_I'll_ decide who is or isn't fit to _consort_ with me," Mirai hissed and releasing the Saiyajin Prince, sent him reeling to the floor of the Gravity Room with a two fisted blow to the back. Trunks landed in front of Vegeta and powered down, shutting off the gravity in the room as the older man picked himself up off the floor and regarded him with something akin to grudging respect. He could tell Mirai had been furious, but he had never lost control of the situation like Trunks often did when Vegeta could get his son to spar.

"You're more in control of your emotions now than when you were here before," Vegeta observed with a smirk. "You're acting more like me now than your mother."

"And that is a truly terrifying thought," Mirai muttered under his breath as he left.

On a high bluff overlooking the sea, two figures sat cross-legged facing each other motionless. The same ocean breeze that lifted their hair and blew it inland like twin streamers of gold and lavender brought in the heavy dark clouds of a summer storm. The air was heavy and humid in anticipation of rain. Mirai Trunks watched silently as Marron slowly raised her hands from her knees and cupped them, palms facing inward in front of her chest, fingers splayed. Her hair was loose and blew in her face, but she ignored it, her eyes closed and her brows knitted in concentration. He could feel her ki slightly rising, but it was overwhelmed by the frustration he could feel coming off of her in waves.

"Relax…just let it happen. Gather your energy and then bring it out," he said patiently. She frowned harder as she tried to focus her energy. Slowly between her hands there was the smallest glimmer of light and then it was gone. She dropped her head with a strangled sob of frustration. They had been on the bluff for most of the afternoon and early evening. Even missing dinner by some unspoken agreement.

"Why is this so HARD?" she cried and fisted her hands in her hair. "Why can't I do it?"

Mirai scooted forward until his knees touched hers. "You're trying too hard. This isn't something you can think through...you need to feel it. You're agitated and frustrated and you can't focus when you're in that mindset…you need to calm down. Getting angry isn't going to make it work," he said gently. She looked at him stubbornly.

"It works for you when you're angry. I saw Papa all those years ago…he could do it…"

"I'm part Saiyajin…I think we're a little more in touch with our ki than ordinary humans are from birth, and part of a Saiyajin's power is fueled by anger. I don't know about Kuririn, but I suspect that it was from the discipline of his training with Kame-sennin that he was able to learn to control it. You've learned some martial arts and you've learned to fly…you can do this. You just need to relax and focus. Just work on getting in touch with your ki – you don't have to blast me the first day," he teased gently. He reached forward and took her hands in his.

"Can't help it…I'm used to being good at things," she mumbled.

"You don't need to be an overachiever in this. Baby steps first," he told her with a small smile and rubbed her palms gently with his thumbs, resting their hands on his knees. "Close your eyes and clear your mind. Stop being frustrated…just relax," he encouraged.

"You keep saying that," Marron grumbled even as she closed her eyes tightly, her face a picture of anything but relaxed. Mirai sighed; she was really making this more difficult than she had to.

"Because you keep not doing it," he told her, suppressing a small laugh which she must have heard in his voice because she opened one eye to regard him a moment before closing it again. She took a deep breath and let it out as he kept rubbing her palms with his thumbs in a slow soothing motion that was intended to relax her. It was having the opposite effect on him though as he was having a harder and harder time controlling himself when he was around her. Especially when she was so beautiful, her pale gold hair flagging in the breeze, the long expanse of her slender bare legs folded with her knees touching his. He raised his eyes to her torso and the silly red t-shirt she wore with _'Out of body: Back in five minutes'_ printed on it. His eyes traveled up over her graceful neck to her face and met her eyes as she stared back at him with her lips slightly parted.

"You're not helping me relax…" she whispered swallowing, "…when you look at me like that."

The first fat raindrops started falling on them and caused steam to rise from the still warm ground. In the days dying light she didn't move as the rain fell harder on them soaking their clothes. Again, Mirai felt caught in her pale cat like gaze and everything went away for him but her, her breasts softly rising and falling with each breath she took, her soft hands in his. He watched her knowing he should let go of her hands, touching her only made it worse for him. The longer they put it off the more he burned for her. She had told him she didn't want to be alone and he didn't either, but that's what he would be when he left. Still he would be a fool to waste whatever time he might have with her. He'd already wasted the last two nights warring against the discipline of his mind and the desires of his body. He'd already lost the battle, his heart was hers whether she knew it or not. He slowly drew her forward and into his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist and delicately kissing her pale throat. She hitched in a little breath.

"I-I've been thinking…about when you lea-" she started and he put a finger against her lips gently.

"Not now…don't think, just feel…" he said softly and kissed her jawline. She tilted her head back like a kitten to give him better access to her neck even as she gave a small smile.

"Is this supposed to relax me so I can focus my ki?" she tried to joke even though mastering her ki was the farthest thing from her mind at the moment. Her thought processes and focus were narrowed to him and the warm rain that fell on them. Mirai nipped her chin between his teeth gently as he lay back on the wet grass pulling her with him.

"Whatever works…" he murmured against her lips.


	7. Chapter seven

AN: Skip it if you don't like this kind of thing...

"Is this supposed to relax me so I can focus my ki?" she joked, even though mastering her ki was the farthest thing from her mind at the moment. Her awareness was narrowed to him and the warm rain that fell on them. Mirai nipped her chin between his teeth gently as he lay back on the wet grass pulling her on top of him.

"Whatever works…" he murmured against her lips before deepening their kiss. Marron made a small noise against his mouth that was part whimper and part sigh as she felt Mirai's hands slide under her wet shirt to caress her back. Rainwater ran off the back of her head, through her hair and over their faces as she licked the insides of his mouth. She stroked his face lightly when the kiss broke, pushing his wet hair off of his face to see him better. The open look of longing in his eyes made her breath catch and her body throb. His hands cupped her buttocks through her wet black shorts making the fabric stick to her skin as he pressed her intimately against him. She could feel the hard length of him against her belly and the answering rush of pleasure as he slowly ground his hips into hers. She dropped her head to his again and kissed him back, his tongue aggressively invading her mouth and twining with hers as he squeezed her backside in rhythm to his motions before sliding his hands up her back pushing her soaked t-shirt up with them and over her head, dropping it with a wet splat next to them.

"You sure you want to do this here…. in the rain? Wouldn't you rather go back home?" she asked, pulling her head back from his and pushing herself up from against his chest with her arms. He skimmed his hands over her wet skin to cup her small breasts and rub his thumbs lightly over her nipples, eliciting a small hiss of pleasure from her as she sucked in her breath, making his groin ache even more painfully at the sound.

"I won't make it back," he rasped, and sat up holding her against him as he kissed her neck and shoulders. "I need you…I don't want to wait anymore."

Marron pushed his vest off of his shoulders in answer as she kissed his neck with her open mouth, tasting rainwater and the salty tang of his skin. Her eager fingers peeled off his tanktop and added it to the pile of soaked clothing. He was almost too beautiful to look at as she stroked his sculpted chest and arms reverently, her hands sliding effortlessly over his wet skin. His eyes closed as her fingers traced down his stomach muscles to the waistband of his pants where she lightly ran her finger just under the edge of the fabric causing him to shudder slightly.

"So perfect…" she whispered as she gazed at him in the fading light, his body contrasts of silver and shadow; a masterpiece of male perfection come to life, all hard muscle and wet velvet skin. His eyes were bluer than the sea behind them as they met hers. He pulled her closer, his mouth trailing down from her collarbones to close over a rosy tipped breast, his strong hands wrapping her legs around his hips, pressing her more fully against him and drawing another small gasp out of her at the intimate contact even through their wet clothes.

_"Marron…"_ he groaned softly and pushed her gently back down onto the grass and covered her body with his. He could feel her stiff nipples pressing against his chest as he kissed her face working down her body to her breasts. The rain lightened until it was just a soft sprinkle falling in Marron's face as she arched her body to meet his teasing lips and tongue, her fingers curling in his rain-darkened hair. He paused a moment where his ki blast had hit her the other day and kissed the spot tenderly even though barely no mark remained. He nipped and licked the rest of the way down her torso to her navel, which he probed with his tongue as he unfastened her shorts and peeled the wet fabric down over her hips and legs.

He caught his breath a bit at the sight of her, as she lay naked before him, her milky skin luminous against the dark ground. He leaned over and kissed her breasts, her belly, and her silky thighs. She gave a sharp cry and bucked her hips up sharply as his tongue found the sweet hot center of her, and he went to work. Nipping and licking the spot that elicited the most agitated cries from her until she was panting and writhing in his arms. At last he worked his way back up her body to her lips kissing her deeply.

"You're so sweet," he whispered to her and buried his face in her neck. Marron shuddered again at his low husky voice choked with need. She could feel the tension of his body as he pressed her into the ground. She reached down between them and stroked him through his wet pants and felt his teeth graze her shoulder as he groaned low in his throat. Swiftly she undid his belt and pants, helping him to kick off the clinging wet fabric along with his boots. He sank back down between her thighs and she gave a little sob of pleasure as he slid into her and she wrapped her arms and legs around him tightly.

Mirai closed his eyes as Marron gasped in his ear, her cry of pleasure nearly undoing him. It had been too long since he had been with a woman, too long since he'd felt a woman's touch on his body. He fought the urge to just take her with abandon, to let his Saiyajin side take over. She deserved better than for him to drive them both into the ground. He moved slowly, gritting his teeth for control. She was slick and succulent and luscious as her tight body sheathed him, her lips hot as she kissed his neck. It was madness to have come to this time -madness to be here with her now, rain soaked and buried in her tight warmth- but he couldn't stop, he'd been alone too long…he needed this, needed her.

"Mirai, it's all right, I won't break," she whispered in his ear and caught his lips as he turned his head to look at her, her fingers traveling his back to rub at the base of his spine. He growled low in his chest and she could feel the vibration of it in hers. He pulled her with him as he sat back on his heels; his legs spread and held her hips as he began thrusting into her harder. Only her shoulders and head rested on the ground, her body arched and as tense as a drawn bow. It was like drowning, the deep thumping pleasure that spread through her and made it hard to breathe, to think, until all she could do was clutch the wet ground and gasp as she climaxed. He lifted her upright and she put her hands on his shoulders as she panted, resting her forehead against his while he leveraged her hips against his relentlessly. The bloom of desire was building in her again as she dropped her head back in the dark.

Mirai brought a hand up and formed a small ki ball as a light to see her face. She was exquisite in her excitement eyes closed and body arched as she moved with him. She looked at him and the ki in his hand.

"Show off," she murmured and took his lower lip between her teeth and sucked on it lightly before claiming his mouth with her own. Mirai let the ki light go out and he spread her legs farther, driving into her even deeper. Her breath was a delicate huff in his ear as she dug her fingers into his shoulders. "Mirai…" she pleaded softly. She squeezed him lightly with her legs and internal muscles and he responded to her whispered pleas for more. He could feel his own release building on him, was surprised he'd lasted as long as he had as he nipped at her neck.

"Say my name," he urged in her ear as he held her to him. "I want to hear you say it…"

Marron took his face in her hands and looked at him even though she could barely see him in the dark. "Trunks… Sweet Dende you're breaking me in half," she whimpered as he shifted her slightly hitting the spot deep inside of her that set off a nova of pleasure and made her body shudder around him in a series of voluptuous pulses that sent him over the edge in more ways than one. His aura snapped up her nerve endings like a bolt of lightning and she arched her back into him and screamed even as he was pumping into her with a savage cry of his own.

He powered down as his climax faded and Marron collapsed against him limp. He held her in his arms as he lay back on the grass gasping. She didn't move for a long time and he was starting to worry about her…visions of trying to explain to everyone that he'd screwed her to death crossing his mind.

"Marron?" he asked experimentally. "Are you dead?"

"Hai," she muttered into his chest. She tried to move from where she was sprawled across him, but didn't seem to be able to muster the strength or coordination to do it and flopped back down on him.

"What the hell did you do to me?" she tried to move again and this time succeeded in an ungraceful flop off of him.

He rolled on his side and nuzzled her neck. "I'm sorry, I kind of lost control of myself there at the end. Are you all right?"

"Got a senzou?" she mumbled face down on the ground. He smiled in the dark and pulled her into his embrace.


	8. Chapter eight

Passion spent he rolled on his side and nuzzled her neck. "I'm sorry I kind of lost control of myself there at the end. Are you all right?"

"Got senzou?" she mumbled face down on the ground. He smiled in the dark and pulled her into his embrace just enjoying the feel of her body along side of his. _Remember this_, he told himself, _remember every single moment you have_ _with her_. He tightened his arms around her and kissed her damp forehead. Marron held him with the same fierceness, as if he would turn to smoke in her embrace like a dream.

"Promise me something," Marron said quietly after they had lain silent in each other's arms a few minutes. She felt Mirai shift slightly to face her even though she couldn't see him.

"If I can…"

"No regrets." Mirai brought a hand up and formed another ki light to see her face. She gazed steadily back at him as he leaned forward and kissed her.

"No, I won't regret anything…even though I should. I guess I'm just selfish," Mirai sighed and rested his forehead against hers.

"You're allowed," she told him with a small smile.

"What about you?"

"I'd rather be with you for how ever long I can be…I guess that makes me selfish too."

Marron brought her hand up near where Mirai was holding the ki light, and as he watched a small glowing ball formed in her palm as well. He smiled and laced his fingers with hers making the two ki balls meld into one mass that surrounded their clasped hands in its glow.

"I told you that you could do it," he said softly. Marron looked into his eyes made green by the yellow light of their combined ki. _I feel like I could do anything as long as I have you…_she thought.

"I guess your technique for relaxing me to focus my ki worked," she chuckled softly. Mirai smiled playfully and leaned over her, his wet hair brushing her cheek.

"Would you like to see it again?" he asked quietly. Marron wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly.

"Absolutely."

Bulma sat on the balcony outside of her bedroom and watched as the last of the rain clouds drifted away while she drank her tea. She could hear Vegeta's soft snores from the room behind her, but sleep was not as quick to claim her tonight as her husband. She looked down toward the nearby guesthouse where Marron -and most recently Mirai Trunks- lived. The little dome was dark, as it had been all evening. Bulma hadn't said anything when Mirai and Marron missed dinner, but she was secretly pleased that Mirai Trunks was taking an interest in the young blonde.

Bulma rested her chin in her hand. She only wanted happiness for all her children, and to Bulma's thinking that included Mirai. Now that his mother was gone she felt more than ever a responsibility to see that he was happy. She knew herself; that's what Mirai Bulma would want. Now that her son was married, and Bra would be soon, that only left Mirai as far as she was concerned. Bulma also felt a great attachment to Marron that went beyond the fact that she was her assistant; she was like a daughter as well. She knew they were both lonely people so she had just given them a gentle nudge toward each other, and then made herself scarce. Now she just had to sit back and wait to see if the seeds she had sown would bloom.

Her train of thought was interrupted by soft voices from below. Bulma peeked over the railing and saw Mirai Trunks land quietly outside the guesthouse with Marron on his back. He put her down so she could open the door then pinned her to it as he kissed her. Bulma saw Marron fumble behind her for the doorknob and heard the muffled crash and their laughter as the door opened and they fell into the room. Bulma smiled secretively and sipped her tea.

"Good for you, son," she murmured to herself.

She got up to go back inside now that she had witnessed the fruits of her matchmaking. Still, she knew the future version of her son far better than he thought she did, his pride and honor may have came from his father, but his stubbornness was all Briefs. She was one step ahead of him on that score, however. She reached into the pocket of her robe and took out the Hoi-Poi capsule that held the Time Machine she had "borrowed" from Mirai's jacket earlier that day. She curled her fist around it and held it to her chest. It wasn't that she didn't trust Mirai, but she had her concerns he was just enough like Vegeta to think that if things got too complicated he would just leave. She looked back over her shoulder toward Marron and Mirai's in time to see the lights go out and she smiled again.

"This is for your own good, Trunks. You need a second chance to be loved," she whispered and put the capsule back in her pocket before rejoining Vegeta and drifting off to sleep.

The sun had barely crested the horizon when Marron made the long flight to the A-3 North Central District. She knew if she told anyone where she was going -especially Mirai- they would only try to stop her. She shifted the pack on her back to a more comfortable position as she flew. She felt a little bad that she had just snuck off while Mirai still slept, slipping out of his embrace to dress in the dark, with only a note that said she would be back late or the following day.

It had been over a week and a half since they had consummated their relationship in the rain. A week and a half that had passed like a dream, a dream she didn't want to wake up from. By some unspoken agreement they didn't discuss his leaving or their feelings, but Marron knew they were just fooling themselves to pretend it could last forever. For one thing Trunks was due home from his honeymoon in a few days and she knew he would be none too pleased that Mirai Trunks was still around.

_Only a few more days with him…at the least. _She thought as she cut across the edge of the desert. She still resolutely refused to regret anything that she did with him, but every time she thought of what life would be like without him she found it hard to breathe. She felt tears prick the back of her eyes at the thought of Mirai leaving and she swiped her arm over her eyes quickly, the rough weave of her sweater daubing the moisture away. It was cold in the mountains where she was heading. Her mind was still chewing over what Mirai Trunks had said the first day that he had arrived: that his world still didn't have the resources or technology this one did, and now without Bulma in his world, who knew when they would. She had been thinking about it off and on since he arrived but only in the last day was an idea starting to form in her mind.

_'There still isn't a whole lot to smile and laugh about in my time.' _She heard Mirai say in her head. Could she? If he couldn't stay here…could she go with him? After all every world needed a beautiful genius...and his had an opening. She brought her mind back to her original purpose as she saw her destination in the mountains up ahead.

She could immediately think of three people off the bat who would have kittens at the very thought of her being here: Bulma, Mirai, and her mother. It wasn't the first time that she had gone to the ruins of Dr. Gero's lab though, her invention the _jinkouseki_ was modified from plans she had found in this laboratory; the plans for Jinzouningen Juukyuu-gou. The energy absorption device on the androids hands had sparked her interest and she had wondered if there wasn't a way to harness the energy and reverse it into a protective barrier that could defend against ki attacks. What had started as an exercise in curiosity had bloomed into a near obsession with her when she started designing it and found it could actually work. The benefits of such a device would be astronomical – especially in a world where some new menace always threatened.

She landed and ran off her momentum with a few steps. The cold mountain wind cut right through her sweater chilling her. It may be summer at home, but this high in the mountains winter never fully let go of its icy grip. Nevertheless, she still shuddered whenever she came here no matter what the temperature was. To the place her mother and uncle became Jinzouningen. The place her father met her mother for the first time. Tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear she found the half buried entrance and started down.

In a much warmer part of the world, Goten leaned back on the hill behind Capsule Corporation and clasped his hands behind his head looking at the clouds. Mirai Trunks sat a short distance away sharpening his sword.

"That looks like a loaf of bread," Goten commented idly about a fluffy cloud overhead. Mirai smiled a little to himself, in the last week and a half whatever precious little time he didn't spend with Marron he spent hanging around with Goten. He liked the outgoing younger man, he reminded him of Gokou-san, always thinking about food. It was a little alarming the ease with which he had fallen into Chibi Trunks' place in things. Goten treated him as though he were his best friend, Bra had taken to calling him oniichan, Bulma called him son…After being alone for so long it was nice to be accepted, to be around people who really cared about him…especially a certain blonde.

"So where's Marron-chan today?" Goten asked him pulling him out of his reverie. Mirai shrugged, he didn't say she had been gone when he woke up. He and Marron weren't hiding their relationship at all, but he still didn't like to volunteer information.

"She didn't say," he told the dark haired man. Goten turned back to the clouds with a nod.

"You like her don't you?" Goten asked. Being a Son it seemed he was perpetually a week behind everybody else on the news. Mirai finished sharpening his sword and threw it in the air, leaning over so it fell point down into the scabbard in a move he'd practiced so many times it was second nature.

"Hn…why do you ask?" Mirai asked. Goten looked thoughtful a moment, pursing his lips as he gazed at the clouds above.

"Trunks-kun liked her too," Goten said, "but he left her and broke her heart."

Mirai wasn't liking where this conversation was going, but he held his tongue and waited Goten out.

"You'll leave her too," Goten pointed out finally looking over at him. Mirai shifted uncomfortably under Goten's gaze. He couldn't deny it – he just hadn't thought of the connection before, or hadn't wanted to. She wanted him to have no regrets, but how could he help it – knowing that if she hurt only half as much as he would at his leaving she would be brokenhearted again. _Ah Marron, the instrument of your misery goes by the name of Trunks._

"I can't stay," he told Goten quietly, "she knows that."

"Sou... Poor Marron-chan…too bad she can't go with you, ne?" Goten said absently staring at the clouds again.

"Yeah…too bad," Mirai mumbled already deep in thought.


	9. Chapter nine

Marron picked her way down the half collapsed corridor that led to the lower level of Dr. Gero's laboratory. She had come back to the lab to see if she could find any other useful information on the energy absorption capabilities of the Jinzouningen that she may have overlooked the last time she was here several years ago. She took a large flashlight from her pack before she went too far into the lab, swallowing down her fear of the dark laboratory.

_All in the name of science, All in the name of science…_she repeated to herself and tried not to let her imagination run away with her. She climbed over a large collapsed portion of the mountain and rounded the corner into the lab proper. The first thing she noticed was that she could see, there must have been some rudimentary systems running that she didn't remember being on before. She edged into the dimly lit room, the room that had spawned madness on an unsuspecting world. Involuntarily her eyes were drawn to the row of chambers along the far wall…one in particular.

She drifted across the debris-strewn lab toward the chambers, to the one designated _Eighteen_. She reached out and put a hand on the cool surface. She wished she knew what had happened to Juuhachi-gou, but all she saw were visions of the last time she had seen her mother two days after her father died. She had found the Android crying on the beach at Kame House, which was alarming; she had never seen her mother cry. She had told Marron she had lost her humanity, that the only thing that made her feel human was gone. Before Marron could ask her what she meant she had flown away. Marron dashed away the tears that rose to her eyes unbidden at the thought of her parents and she turned away from her mother's stasis chamber. The weak light was coming from deeper in the lab and as Marron made her way toward it she noticed something odd. There were plans and tools and parts scattered around a worktable as if someone had been building something. Frowning Marron tentatively edged closer.

The day had worn on to early evening and Mirai still sat on the hill long after Goten had abandoned him in search of food. He was so deeply engrossed in thought he didn't even sense Bulma when she trudged up the hill to find him.

"Well at least I finally found one of you…which means the other shouldn't be too far off," Bulma laughed as she reached Mirai's side. He looked up at her with a faraway look on his face.

"Hnh?" Bulma rolled her eyes and ruffled his hair like she had done to her own son for so many years before sitting beside him.

"Where's Marron-chan? You two are always together lately," Bulma nudged him with a knowing smile. "Is love in the air?" Mirai blushed a bit eyes lowered.

"Bulma-san…" he pleaded. Bulma waved her hand dismissively.

"I'm your mother…or at least the very next thing. It's my job to pry into your personal life," she said with a wink. When he didn't answer Bulma sighed. She reached out and tucked his long hair behind his ear so she could see his face. "I can cut it for you again if you want…like last time," she offered quietly. Mirai smiled and shook his head.

"No, I like it this way…I like being different."

"He's really not so bad, Trunks. He can be a little immature I admit, but he has a good heart. And I know the two of you could learn to get along if you stayed," Bulma said and took his hand. It was Mirai's turn to sigh.

"Kaasan…this isn't my time, its Chibi's. We all know that, pretending it isn't won't change the truth. I didn't think through all of the consequences of my coming here, I just wanted to see you again…" he said with a rueful smile as Bulma squeezed his hand. "…I should never have come back. It isn't fair to Chibi, it isn't fair to you, and it certainly isn't fair to Marron."

"I think she would disagree with you," Bulma told him.

"Of course she would…she's just like you," Mirai said with a laugh. Bulma patted his hand and looked away tears brightening her blue eyes.

"So your mind is made up then?" Bulma asked him.

"Hai…I should leave, before things get any more difficult than they are."

Bulma bit her lip in a moment's indecision. Stubborn, stubborn child…he was just like her. "One condition: You don't just leave without saying goodbye to her. Don't you disappear on her like your father used to do to me," Bulma told him sternly.

Before Mirai could answer he sensed Marron's ki and turned in time to see her land near them. Her jeans and sweater were muddy and torn, her hair wet and matted to her head. Her face was filthy except for the clean tracks made by the tears that still flowed freely from her eyes, washing away the dirt and blood from a deep gash on her forehead.

"Marron-chan! What happened dear?" Bulma asked concerned as she rose. Mirai was already on his feet as Marron stumbled the few steps forward into his arms.

"I found her…I finally found her," Marron wailed burying her face in Mirai's shirt.

"Who, Marron-chan?" Bulma asked as she sobbed uncontrollably in Mirai's embrace.

"O-Okaasan…"

Marron slid around the edge of the worktable farther into the dim lab. She looked at the plans laid out among the parts and caught her breath. With shaking fingers she picked them up, they were the plans for Jinzouningen's Juusan-gou, Juuyon-gou, and Juugo-gou. These hadn't been here the last time she visited the lab, she was certain of it. Without thinking she rolled the plans up and put them in her pack to study later. There could be other useful ideas to be gleaned from Dr. Gero's madness. As she did her gaze fell into the trashcan next to the workbench. Among the scraps of wire and solder that littered it she saw remnants of burned paper. She reached in and pulled out the biggest surviving piece, the edges curled and charred. She could make out the ends of some schematics and words.

_-gency_

_-op_

_-ller_

Marron's heart jumped up to her throat. Someone had found the plans for an Emergency Deactivator. She let the scrap of paper fall from her fingers as she moved deeper into the darker reaches of the lab beyond the reach of the weak light over the worktable. She could make out a table up ahead covered with a sheet, she squinted her eyes in the gloom until she remembered her flashlight and got it out of her pack again. As she fumbled it out of her pack she tripped on the edge of something and fell forward, pin wheeling her arms for balance. She fell to her knees banging her forehead smartly on the edge of another piece of partially destroyed machinery. She shook her head to clear it as she picked herself back up. She looked at the flashlight in her hand and saw she had completely destroyed it when she fell.

Marron formed a ki light in her hand -quite the useful little trick Mirai Trunks had taught her- she thought crazily as her head swam and a trickle of blood ran into her eye. She moved on toward the table even as every sense in her body was telling her to turn around and go…some things were better left alone. As she got closer she could see something under the sheet. She stopped an arms length away and swiped the blood out of her eye with the back of her free hand. She heard ragged breathing and was about to spin around when she realized it was her own. She gave a short bark of laughter at herself for being so jumpy and with a deep breath reached out and pulled the sheet back.

"Oh no…please…no…" Marron whimpered as the first of a sea of tears filled her eyes.

Juuhachi-gou lay on the table perfectly preserved, looking exactly the same as the day she became a Jinzouningen. She was wearing her favorite outfit, a pair of jeans and a black shirt with striped sleeves – the only difference was that her hair was in the short cut she'd worn the last few years. Her normally expressionless face wore the faintest trace of a gentle smile. She had her hands folded on her chest; in one was the deactivator and the other an envelope. Marron took the envelope from her mother's lax hands first. She wiped her tears on her sleeve again and with shaking fingers opened it, forming another ki light to see. Inside was a photograph, one of Juuhachi-gou's favorites. Kuririn and Marron taken when she was about seven years old; Kuririn was leaning over slightly a huge grin on his face while Marron kissed his cheek. Marron flipped the picture over and found three words written on the back. _Not without him_.

Marron put her hand over her mouth to stifle the small sob that escaped. She unfolded the piece of paper in the envelope and read it as her tears fell on it and ran the ink. When she was done she crushed the note in her hand as her grief overwhelmed her and she sank to the floor.

"Oh Kaasan…I can't," she whispered sobbing even as she knew she would honor her mother's last wish. How could she not do as her mother asked?

Eventually, she took the deactivator from her mother's hand and replaced the picture. She leaned over and kissed her mother's forehead, her blood tinged tears falling on Juuhachi-gou's high white brow.

"Goodbye…I love you, Mama…I love you both. I'll be strong for you, I promise..." she murmured and before she lost her nerve dropped the controller on the floor and with a sob of anguish crushed it into a million pieces. She pulled the sheet back up to cover Juuhachi-gou's face – hurrying now that the timer Juuhachi-gou placed in the deactivator had been tripped by its destruction.

She almost made it; was almost clear of the lab when the bomb Juuhachi-gou placed to finally destroy once and for all the birthplace of the Jinzouningen detonated and buried Marron under several feet of earth and rock.

Mirai Trunks sat with his back against the headboard as Marron slept fitfully in his arms. She had refused to let him out of her sight after she had thrown herself into his arms and tearfully told them about finding her mother in the ruins of Dr. Gero's lab. Mirai had felt his heart twist as she revealed what had happened to her there. He and Bulma had both been alarmed at how close she had come to being killed, she had been lucky she was close to the entrance of the lab and had been able to dig herself out with nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises.

He brushed her clean damp hair back from her brow, the small bandage over her cut the only thing marring her alabaster complexion. How close he had come to losing her today, and yet ultimately he still would when he left. Even in her sleep she still clung to him. She had been so distraught when Bulma and Bra had tried to lead her off to get her head bandaged and cleaned up, that in the end Mirai had taken care of her himself. She had said very little about what Juuhachi-gou's final note had said, but whatever it was had unraveled Marron quite a bit…she wasn't a clingy person by nature.

Carefully he extracted himself from her embrace and was getting up to make some tea when Marron's eyes flew open searching the room wildly until she saw him. He sat back on the bed with her and rubbed her back gently as she hugged his pillow to her chest.

"I'm sorry, Mirai…I don't mean to be such a bother," she murmured. He lay down next to her and leaned on his elbow.

"You aren't…I was just going to make some tea. Would you like some?" he asked soothingly. She gave him a ghost of shrug and turned her face away.

When he returned with the tea a few minutes later she was sitting against the headboard with her knees pulled up under her nightgown to her chin. He sat cross-legged next to her and offered her the cup of tea. She took it woodenly and stared into it as if it would offer her answers. Mirai watched her silently as she bit her lip and then finally spoke.

"When she first disappeared I always thought she would come back. I mean, my father was gone but I still needed her, even though I was an adult. Then after a while I just…accepted that I'd probably never see her again…She obviously didn't need me. You know the last thing she ever said to me was that she had lost her humanity; my father was what made her feel human. It hurt when she said that, wasn't I proof of her humanity too? Maybe she thought I was too much like her. I know she loved me – she just never worried about me the way Papa always did," she said with a little chuckle.

Mirai smiled a bit as he remembered the little bald monk and his selfless wish for the Jinzouningen to be free of the self-destruct device and be happy. He could imagine how proud Kuririn must have been to have had such a beautiful caring daughter. "Your Otousan was a good man…a good friend. I liked him very much. I'm sure Juu-your Okaasan must have cared for him deeply," Mirai said quietly.

"You would have never known it to look at them. I was their daughter and even I had my doubts at times. Until today…now I understand everything she felt…all too well," Marron whispered tears filling her eyes.

"Understand what?"

"I didn't understand until I found her that her life without my father was just a prison to her…she'd never grow old, she'd never die…she didn't want to be without him. I never knew until today how much she loved him, just how much my father meant to her," Marron said as tears slipped out of her eyes again. She turned and looked at Mirai.

"I don't want that to happen to me. I don't want you to never know what you've meant to me. I'm scared when I close my eyes that you'll be gone."

"I wouldn't leave you like that Marron," Mirai told her softly and brushed her tears away with the backs of his fingers.

"But you're still going to leave me…." she said miserably, eyes lowered, her tears shining on her eyelashes like diamonds. Mirai took the forgotten teacup from her lax fingers before she spilled it, and then tipped her face up to look at him.

"No regrets remember?" he reminded her gently.

"I'm afraid. I'm so afraid of what I'll become without you in my life," she whispered. Mirai pulled her closer into his embrace.

"You're strong Marron, you're sensitive, intelligent, and kind. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met inside and out. You don't need me," he told her swallowing the lump in his own throat. _I'm the one who needs you…_he thought.

"You're wrong," she whispered, so quietly he almost didn't hear it. "That's why I've made a decision," she said and moved so she could look in his eyes. He looked back questioningly.

"I'm going with you."


	10. Chapter ten

The silence stretched out between them as Mirai looked into his lover's china blue eyes and saw the resolve there. She was serious…

"Marron…we don't have to discuss this now. You've had a traumatic day, you should rest…" he said gently and moved to get up. Marron was on him in a second and pushed him back against the pillows, her hands on his shoulders.

"If not now when, Trunks?" she said, her face intense. "I've been thinking about this before today. I can give you a list of practical and logical reasons why I should go with you if you don't like the main one." Mirai felt himself flush a bit under her gaze, normally the only time she called him Trunks was when they were being intimate. Her hands moved from his shoulders to gently brush his loose hair out of his face as she sat on her heels next to him.

"What's the main one?" Mirai heard himself asking. Marron gave him the slightest smile as she slid her hands into his hair to hold his head and leaned over to kiss him, her lips still wet and salty from her earlier tears. Mirai put his arms around her, pulling her close until she lay next to him.

"You're supposed to be so smart…don't you know?" Somewhere inside of him Mirai was feeling something bloom, the same feeling that made him disregard propriety and be with her in the first place, the same urge that made him selfishly seize every moment with her to squirrel away the memories for when he got back to his world and was alone again. But now she was saying he didn't have to be.

"Tell me anyway," he said urgently. Even as his practical and proper side was telling him it was insanity to even consider the possibility; the other side wanted this, the neglected part of him that needed to be loved and turned toward her like a vine toward the sun. Marron looked into eyes as blue as the summer sky, so hopeful and yearning.

"I'm in love with you," she said simply.

He leaned over her and kissed her deeply, his body half covering hers, his long hair falling to brush silkily against her cheek and neck. He put his forehead against hers as he held her tightly in his arms and said to her what was in his heart – what had been there all along.

"I love you too, Marron," he whispered.

Marron smiled and turned into his embrace, some of the pain of losing her mother soothed by the comfort of his presence. She pressed her face into his chest, his warmth and scent enveloping her, relaxing her.

"You won't leave without me will you?" she asked muffled. Mirai kissed the top of her head. The practical side of him was still raging that he should leave even as his other side spoke.

"I'm not going anywhere without you," he told her. She smiled again and snuggled deeper into his embrace her arms tightening around him.

"Good…'Cause I'd hate to have to build my own time machine to come after you," she said and fell asleep.

Bulma slumped into her chair and looked forlornly at the two young people before her. She touched her brow absently as she looked from one to the other.

"Both of you are going?" she asked. Marron crouched before Bulma and took her hands in hers.

"Bulma-san, it's a great opportunity to help his world. Now that his mother is gone they could really use someone with my education and background," Marron told her. "There's nothing to keep me here now that Kaasan's gone. Besides at the very least I'll only be gone eight months if it doesn't work out, and I can come back and visit."

"What about your inventions…and the lab?" Bulma argued weakly. This wasn't what she had intended at all, to lose them both.

"Bulma…I have to do this," Marron told her quietly. Bulma's eyes went to Mirai who stood silently behind Marron his hands buried in his pockets.

"Is this what you want, Trunks-chan?" Bulma asked Mirai. He looked up at Bulma from where he had been gazing at Marron. Any residual guilt he might have had about stealing her away had been assuaged when she had pointed out that she could always come back once the Time Machine was recharged, but he had a feeling she wouldn't be going anywhere once he had her home.

"Hai," he said inclining his head slightly and smiling at Bulma to reassure her. "My world needs her…I need her, " he finished softly. Marron looked over her shoulder at him and winked as Mirai blushed slightly.

"Well, there only one thing left to do then," Bulma said as she stood and hugged them both, before reaching in her pocket and pulling out the Hoi-Poi capsule and giving it to Mirai Trunks with a sheepish smile.

Mirai took the capsule with a puzzled look and put his hand behind his head. "Uh, Thanks…what is it?" he asked confused. Bulma's eyes got huge.

"That's not the Time Machine?" she asked, sweat dropping a little. "I…um…_borrowed_ it from your jacket, are you sure its not the Time Machine?" Bulma asked him. Mirai examined it carefully.

"This one has my dirty laundry," he announced and looked at Bulma curiously as she slapped her own forehead repeatedly and left the room muttering, leaving behind a very bewildered Marron and Trunks.

Marron tucked the very last capsule of her belongings into the case and shut it with a SNAP of finality. The capsule containing her most precious possessions – her laptop, tools, backup files, and the _jinkouseki_ - she kept on her person in the pocket of her own old battered blue CC jacket. She tucked the case into her backpack shoving it down past the rolled up Jinzouningen plans and glanced around the lab to see if she had missed anything. Now that she had made her decision to go she was eager to get 'on the road' before Chibi Trunks came home and before Mirai could have a chance to change his mind.

She left the lab and couldn't help but admire the Time Machine where it stood shining on the lawn in the late afternoon sun. Mirai had un-encapsulated it earlier to run his preliminary checks. The clear dome was open, but Marron didn't see Mirai anywhere around. Remembering the training he had been giving her she closed her eyes and searched for his ki, she wasn't great at it yet – especially if he was even marginally trying to suppress it – but she sensed it off to the west toward the sea, steady and strong like a pulse behind her eyes. She lifted off the ground and paused to toss her backpack toward the interior of the Time Machine without really looking. She registered it went in before she banked and flew off to find Mirai.

She was not much more than a speck when Goten raised his head from where he and Bra had been hiding in the Time Machine.

"OW-OW-OW! What did she pack in this thing?" he whined rubbing his head. Bra giggled from where she was sitting under him and ran her finger down his chest.

"Poor baby, you're just lucky it hit you in the head and not anywhere more…vital," she said with a wicked smile. Goten grinned at her and sat in the main control seat, pulling Bra into his lap. She raised an eyebrow at him as he leaned forward to kiss her throat.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked. "Somebody might see us! We're not even supposed to be in here…Mirai-oniichan said there were very sensitive controls in here, which I wanted to see…oh my!" she gasped as Goten's hands found a few of her favorite places. "Now that I have we…should…leave before we get caught…" she murmured as her eyes started to cross. Goten kissed a trail up her neck and nibbled on her jawline.

"C'mon, baby…when will we ever have a chance to do it in a Time Machine? It can go at the top of our strangest places list," he said grinning and wagging his eyebrows at her. Bra wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"All right…but be careful you don't touch anything important, you horny thing," she relented as she tugged off Goten's shirt and dropped it carelessly on the control panel behind her.

"Yes Ma'am," he teased, eyes gleaming.

Mirai Trunks stood on the cliff overlooking the sea very near where he and Marron had been caught in the storm. The sun was getting close to setting and it colored the high wispy clouds magenta and violet. He had his hands stuffed in his pockets and his loose hair blew in the ocean breeze. He probably should get it cut; it was getting really long, falling well below his shoulders...longer than he ever remembered having it before. Perhaps he should let Bulma-Kaasan cut it before he left, but he was used to it now and Marron had told him that she liked it long. The permanent scowl on his face momentarily softened as he thought of her. As if summoned by his thoughts he sensed her approaching.

Marron landed lightly a few feet away and Mirai smiled at her, everything she did as graceful as a cat. She glanced over a second with a small smile of her own before regarding the beautiful sunset before them. She didn't move any closer to him, just stared out at the sea.

"Having second thoughts? Is that why you're hiding all the way out here?" she asked him neutrally in a low voice without turning around.

"No second thoughts…you?"

Marron turned with a smile as she cocked her head at him. "Of course not…it was MY idea after all," she pointed out. She was cute as she stood there with her hands fisted on her hips in her faded blue CC jacket over a black tank top and cutoff shorts. Her hair in the same messy braid she always wore when she worked in the lab.

"Then why are you still standing all the way over there?" he asked.

"I didn't want to bother you if you were thinking or wanted to be alone," she said feeling a little shy all of a sudden. Mirai held out an arm and Marron stepped into his embrace wrapping her arms around his waist and tucking her head under his chin.

"I've been alone for way too long, I'm grateful for the company…'specially yours," he told her and nuzzled his nose in her hair. She tipped her face up to his with a smile.

"I'm all packed. When do you want to leave?" she asked him.

"In the morning should be soon enough…is there anything else you want to do before we go?" Mirai asked her as she leaned against him. They had already made the trip earlier that day for Marron to put flowers on her parents' graves and pay their respects, gone to Gohan and Videl's for Mirai to say goodbye, and then went to obtain some hard to get supplies Mirai wanted to take back to his time.

"Not really," she sighed as she turned her back to the sea and held him tighter, untucking his tank top subtly to slide her hands over the smooth skin of his back. "I have to admit…I expected you to argue about me going back with you far more than you did this morning," she said as her hands absently traced the sharply defined muscles of his shoulders and back.

"You've made some excellent points, my world does need someone like you to help keep things running like Kaasan did," he said innocently. She narrowed her eyes at him as he tried to keep from smiling.

"You don't like my reason for letting you come with me?" he asked. She shook her head.

"You'll need to do better than that," she told him tucking her hands into the waistband of his pants at the small of his back. Mirai closed his eyes and practically purred as the tip of her index finger brushed tantalizingly over the scar at the base of his spine.

"I can think of another really good reason," Mirai said lowering his head to hers with a small smile. Marron closed her eyes and leaned into his kiss parting her lips to let his velvety tongue languorously twine with hers as he explored her mouth. His arms that had been around her waist slid down and he pulled her against him more fully.

"And what's that?" she asked breathlessly against his lips when he let her up for air. Mirai brushed his lips against hers as they curled into a smile.

"I love you," he murmured. Marron wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head to hers again for another savoring kiss.

"As I do you, Trunks," she told him.

"What happened to Mirai?" he asked teasingly as she stroked the back of his neck and tangled her fingers in his hair.

"Well, I can't very well call you 'Future' when we're there now can I?" she said and smiled.

"I wanted to tell you…it means a lot to me, you wanting to come with me. My world is a lot different than this one is…you're giving up a lot to be with me," he told her softly.

"I'm not giving up anything better than what I'm getting, Trunks…even if I was, do you think I'd let you go off and leave without me, now that I've finally found you?" she asked and reached up on her toes to kiss him. Another sunset bathed them in its fiery glow as Mirai held her.

"I found you," Mirai Trunks corrected her with a small smile. "The best thing that ever happened to me."

"And that's about a billion points for you sweet talker," Marron told him with a huge smile. Mirai lay her down on the grass as the sun slipped below the horizon and half covered her body with his. Marron wrapped her arms around his neck as she kissed him just enjoying the feel of his muscular body pressed against hers, the silky brush of his long hair as it tickled her face, the sounds of their breathing and the crash of the waves below the only sounds. And yet on the edge of her awareness there was something…both familiar and strange. She frowned a little as Mirai broke the kiss reluctantly.

"You feel it too?" he asked her brushing the hair from her eyes. She nodded.

"What is that?" she asked. Mirai lowered his face to hers for a final brief kiss before getting up and pulling her with him. His face looked hard and closed off again as he looked toward the east and the first stars of the evening.

"Chibi's back."


	11. Chapter eleven

"This is intolerable! Why is HE still here!" Trunks ground out as he paced the room.

Pan sat in a chair and watched blithely as her husband came dangerously close to going Super Saiyajin in the middle of his bedroom. Bulma would have parakeets if Trunks ruined the paintjob in his room again. Pan sighed; two weeks of back massages, walks on the beach, romantic dinners and lots, and lots of sex and she had _finally_ gotten Trunks to relax and enjoy himself on his honeymoon without worrying about what was going on at home. She glanced at her watch, they had been home just over an hour and he already looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel.

_All my hard work shot to hell…_

"You heard your Okaasan, Trunks…He's leaving. What are you so worked up about?" she asked him.

"He should have left _two weeks ago_, Pan! Dende knows what he's been doing around here…pretending to be me. And don't you roll your eyes at me either," he said pointing a finger at her when she looked skyward for inspiration on how to handle this situation.

"Maybe he's just been being himself Trunks, you ever think of that?" she asked him patiently.

"Don't you take his side, Pan…" Trunks said warningly his anger making him foolish as Pan narrowed her dark eyes at him.

"I'm not on his side, I'm not on anyone's side, but if I was it would be yours. You think I like seeing you this pissed off?" Pan said in a clipped voice, her own irritation making her ki rise.

With an inarticulate snarl Trunks whirled away and went to the window intending to fling it open and fly away. He got as far as opening it when his eyes fell on the Time Machine below and Marron's house just beyond.

"No way! No fucking way!" Trunks barked in disbelief as he saw Mirai and Marron carrying several bags from her house to the Time Capsule. Even in the low light Trunks could see the happy look on Marron's face as she looked up at Mirai. When they got to the Capsule Mirai Trunks took the bags from her and gave her a swift kiss before he flew up into the cockpit to stow the bags.

"What?" Pan asked from behind him the sharpness still not gone from her voice.

"She's going with him!" Trunks snapped as he watched the two below, his hands white knuckled on the windowsill. He had very little idea why the idea of Marron leaving with the older version of himself should make him so angry. He'd had his chance with Marron and he'd thrown it away for Pan. He wasn't sorry, he loved Pan with all his heart, but it pissed him off to no end because Marron had never looked at him that way. What did that wannabe have that he didn't?

"So what? Good for her…She should be with someone nice," Pan told him as she came to the window to stand next to him. Trunks gave a withering look that she didn't see as she watched the couple below.

"How do you figure she's going with him? She's just standing there," Pan asked him.

"I know Marron…Kaasan and Bra-chan must not know about this. There's no way they'd let Marron leave with him," Trunks said with a triumphant smile. "Kaasan will put a stop to this," He spun on his heel and stalked out of the room yelling for his sister.

"Yeah, whatever…knock yourself out Trunks," Pan muttered after he was gone. Shaking her head she flopped back on the bed arms flung wide. God, she needed another vacation already.

Pan watched idly from the staircase with Goten as her husband and sister-in-law confronted Bulma about Marron's leaving. Bulma's eyebrows were drawn down and she looked none too pleased with her children as Bra and Trunks both carried on at once. Vegeta leaned against the wall near where Bulma sat and watched with a vaguely interested expression to see how his wife would handle them.

"Kaasan! You can't let her go…She's supposed to be my Maid of Honor in the wedding…" Bra whined.

"How could you let them, Kaasan! He's just using her…" Trunks yelled at the same time.

"Enough!" Bulma snapped getting up from her chair to stand arms akimbo before her children. "I don't have to DO anything! I am ashamed of you both for your behavior; all I have heard from you is the reasons why YOU don't want her to go – selfish reasons! I don't blame Marron-chan at all for wanting to leave with friends like you two."

Bra hung her head and had the good sense to look ashamed, but Trunks still looked furious as Bulma shook her finger at him.

"As for you…" she said addressing Trunks, "…Mirai Trunks is still '_Trunks_' and therefore MY son, he is FAMILY and I'll not have you suggest that his motives are anything less than honorable. I encouraged this relationship and Marron has my blessings to go even though I will miss her terribly. I care about her happiness and it saddens me that I seem to be the only one in this house who does," Bulma finished with a pointed stare at her children. Bra cringed and looked even more miserable, but Trunks hadn't budged, he still looked ready to punch something.

"So you're not going to do anything about this? Just let her go off to another TIME for Dende's sake with a man she's known – what? Three weeks?" Trunks ground out arms folded. "It would seem I'M the only one who cares what happens to her."

"You care too much, my love," Pan whispered to herself. Goten looked over at his niece a moment and frowned as Bulma ripped into her obstinate son.

"When are you going to get it through your head, son? That 'man' is _you_…Trunks Vegeta Briefs - he is not some stranger! Even if he was, not one of us here in this house has any right to tell either of them what to do. Especially you, Trunks – now back off and let it alone," Bulma told him in a tone that said the discussion was closed. Trunks fisted his hands at his sides as his jaw clenched.

"If you won't do anything to stop this then I will," Trunks snapped and turned away heading upstairs. He paused by where Pan leaned against the wall and gave her a look that told her she had better choose her side now before continuing on upstairs. Pan pushed off the wall to follow him when she felt Goten's hand on her arm.

"Panny-chan…" he said softly and shook his head. Pan looked from his hand on her arm up to his eyes.

"He's my husband, Ojisan…I have to support him even if I don't agree," she told him quietly and followed Trunks. Goten sighed and went to collect his miserable looking fiancée from where she was slumped dejectedly on the couch. Bulma still looked loaded for bear as Vegeta threw his two cents in on the matter.

"Who's going to repair my Gravity Room if the Jinzouning-jo leaves?"

Bulma's face got red as she sucked in air to let Vegeta have it. Goten sweat dropped and grabbed Bra wanting to be as far away from Bulma-san as possible when she blew her top.

"Where am I gonna find another Maid of Honor now…?" Bra whimpered in his ear as Goten whisked her away just as Bulma laid into Vegeta in a tirade that would peel paint. Her screeching was clearly audible to the pair that sat on the smaller dome of the guesthouse in the starlight. Marron winced as she heard her name again and Mirai put his arm around her comfortingly, his eyes never leaving Chibi Trunks' window and the silhouette standing there.

"I hate this! Everyone fighting because of me…" Marron said quietly burying her face in his vest.

"It's okay, my love. It'll all be over soon," he told his lover soothingly and kissed the top of her head as he looked back toward the main house. "Let's go to bed…big day tomorrow." Marron nodded and got up to go in, turning to offer her hand to help him up. At her sad expression he stood and put his hand on her shoulder.

"I promise you,_" _ he said. Her brow furrowed a bit and he leaned forward and kissed her softly.

"Promise what?"

"I'll always take care of you," he said. Marron gave a wry little smile and put her hand over his on her shoulder.

"We'll take care of each other, Trunks…that's more than enough."

The inevitable confrontation between Chibi and Mirai Trunks came early the next morning as Marron and Mirai came out of the guesthouse to leave. He stood in front of the Time Capsule with arms folded and scowling. No one else seemed to be up yet and Marron had no idea how long Trunks had been standing there just waiting for them to leave. Marron glanced nervously between Trunks and Mirai; the latter seemed totally relaxed as he regarded the younger version of himself.

"'Morning Chibi, how considerate of you to come and see us off," Mirai Trunks said lightly. Chibi Trunks' eyes flicked from Mirai to Marron noting their clasped hands.

"You can leave," he told Mirai in a low threatening voice, "and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, but you're leaving here _alone_. She's not going with you."

"The hell I'm not! Asshole!Who do you think you are? You can't tell me what to do!" Marron snapped furiously and fisted her hands, unconsciously raising them into the fighting stance she learned from her mother. Trunks' eyes shifted to her briefly then back on Mirai who still seemed totally relaxed and calm.

"Stay out of this Marron. You don't know what you're doing…he's just taking advantage of you while you're vulnerable. You'll thank me later for preventing you from making a huge mistake," Trunks told her not unkindly. Marron's mouth opened and closed like a fish as she tried to get her brain around the absurdity, the unmitigated gall and presumption of Trunks to think he could advise her on her life. Her blood was starting to boil. Mirai put a hand on her shoulder again in an attempt to calm her down.

"I can't do that. I promised Marron I wouldn't leave without her," Mirai told him evenly. Trunks scowled harder at the familiarity Mirai used with Marron as she without thinking stepped closer to him and he put his arm around her.

"She's not going!" Chibi Trunks yelled starting to lose his composure. Mirai felt Marron's body tense under his hand as she got angrier and angrier. Before she could protest, Mirai spoke up.

"What's this really about, Chibi? You have a wife so it can't be that you still want Marron…or do you?" Mirai still seemed outwardly calm in complete contrast to his younger self who bared his teeth.

"No!" Chibi Trunks bit out and Marron relaxed slightly. Mirai Trunks squeezed her shoulder lightly before he let go of her to keep his hands free at his sides since he couldn't be completely sure of what Chibi would do next. Marron could see everyone spilling out of the house drawn by their loud voices.

"Trunks! What is the meaning of this?" Bulma asked as she ran up still in her bathrobe and slippers.

"What does it look like? They were trying to sneak off together," Chibi Trunks told his mother. Marron's fingernails dug into her palms as she stalked two steps forward toward Trunks.

"Liar..." Marron hissed.

"What's going on?" Bulma asked the other Trunks, ignoring Marron who was glaring at Chibi. Mirai shrugged.

"Still trying to figure out what the big objection is, but Chibi here seems to have a real problem with Marron leaving. He says he doesn't want her anymore but…" Mirai finished vaguely with another shrug. Everyone was now looking at Chibi Trunks who blushed under their scrutiny and looked fit to pop.

"Fight me," he said tersely. "You win Marron goes…I win and she stays."

"Chibi…it's not either of our decisions to make, its Marron's," Mirai pointed out and folded his arms across his chest.

"That's right! And I'm GOING, Trunks!" Marron yelled at him.

"No you're NOT!" Trunks argued back just as vehemently.

"Boy! Let the Jinzouning-jo do what she wants," Vegeta told his son. Pan looked torn as she stood with Bra and watched her husband. She realized this had little to do with Marron herself, but what Marron represented. Mirai Trunks being better than he was at something else again, succeeding where Trunks had failed. Mirai seemed to come to the same conclusion as Pan.

"If you want a fight so bad then fight Marron…she's the one who wants to go," Mirai suggested. Marron grinned horribly; she was just about pissed off enough to take on a Super Saiyajin too. Trunks looked offended.

"No way! I'm not fighting Marron!" Trunks snarled and took a step toward Mirai. "I wanna fight you," he told the older version of himself with an evil smirk.

"You'll lose," Mirai promised him quietly wearing the same smirk as his younger self.

Unable to stand the rising testosterone any longer Marron shot her hand out with a snarl and grabbed a handful of Chibi Trunks' jacket and took to the air hauling the lavender haired demi-Saiyajin along with her. When they were high over Capsule Corporation she let go of him with a vicious push to the chest.

"Why are you doing this to me? Why?"she growled at him, so angry and frustrated she was near tears. "Why are you trying to take MY chance to be happy away from me?"

"Marron this is your home! He's taking advantage of you because he looks like me and we used to go out. You can't really love him," Trunks argued urgently.

"How the hell would you know? Have you ever even talked to him? All I've heard from you are unsubstantiated claims that he's just some imposter who's come to take over your life. He's his own person; he's nothing like you! What do I have to do to make you understand that, Trunks? I love him and you can't stop me from going back with him," she told him, her hands still fisted at her sides so hard she was nearly drawing blood from her fingernails cutting into her palms as she tried to keep from physically shaking sense into him.

"Marron…" he began.

"This has _nothing_ to do with you, Trunks. This is about what I want," she said in a gentler tone of voice even as she stared him down. Trunks blew upwards through his bangs in a resigned fashion before meeting her gaze again.

"You never looked at me that way…" he said quietly. "In all the time we were together you never looked at me the way I saw you look at him."

"Is that what this is? Trunks, in all the time _we_ were together you never looked at me the way you look at Pan-chan, but did I try to stop you from being happy…ever?" she asked him coldly.

"No," he whispered as the true impact of what she was saying sunk in. He looked up into her eyes and saw the truth…she really did love him. After all the years he had known her, and then dated her, they had always remained friends, but he saw he wasn't being a very good one now.

"I'll tell you the same thing I told Bulma-san…I'll come back to visit, if it doesn't work out I can come back as soon as the Time Machine is charged, but don't count on it…I love him Trunks, why can't you just be happy for me? Just be my friend…stop being my suspicious ex-boyfriend," she said with a spare smile.

"Ano…" Trunks relented and put one hand behind his head. Marron rolled her eyes at him and started drifting back toward the ground. As Trunks caught up to her he gave her his usual wicked grin.

"So Marron-chan…who's better in bed?" he asked and raised an eyebrow. Marron sighed inwardly, might as well stroke his ego and let him have this one, she thought.

"You are, Trunks," she told him and shook her head faintly as she followed him to the ground and into Mirai's waiting arms.

Bulma had insisted they wait until after breakfast to leave. And then the tearful goodbyes had drawn on until Vegeta started yelling at them to just go before his wife and daughter caused a natural disaster.

Pan and Bra hugged Marron for the tenth time as Bra kept crying. "I'm sorry I'm going to miss your wedding, Bra..." Marron told her sincerely. Bra sniffled and waved her hand dismissively.

"I'm just gonna miss you," Bra cried. Marron turned and was caught up in a big hug from Goten as he lifted her off the ground.

"Take care of yourself, Maro-chan," Goten whispered and kissed her temple, "I'll miss you, my friend," he said and let her go. Marron was starting to get a little misty herself as Bulma hugged her again and gave her some last minute pieces of advice.

Marron wiped her eyes on her sleeve and found herself face to face with the Saiyajin Prince again. She stared into his black eyes like a trapped rabbit, as he looked her over silently. At long last his expression softened imperceptibly.

"Watch after him, that one takes after his mother a little too much," Vegeta told her and turned away. Marron blinked in surprise and went to join Mirai where he waited by the machine. Chibi Trunks hung back arms folded over his chest and a closed expression on his face. Marron smiled at him and gave him a little wave that he acknowledged with a small nod. Mirai held his hand out to her and smiled warmly.

"Ready?" he asked as she took his hand. She nodded as he took to the air.

"I can't believe we're finally going!" Marron said excitedly as she followed Mirai into the cockpit of the Time Machine. "It's kind of small in here…where do you want me?" she asked. Trunks situated himself in the control seat and then patted his lap with a smile. Marron raised her eyebrow.

"You sure? I can squeeze behind the seat if you want," she said. Before she could get in, Chibi Trunks floated up next to them. Marron looked at him warily, but he just held his arms out for a hug. Marron relaxed and let herself be hugged by Trunks.

"I'll never forget you…you'll always be very special to me," he whispered in her ear finally. Marron squeezed him tighter for a second then let go; climbing back into the cockpit with Mirai and wiping new tears out of her eyes surreptitiously with the back of her hand.

"Take good care of her," Chibi Trunks told him solemnly, his somber expression replaced by a smugger one, as he remembered what Marron had told him.

"Count on it," Mirai replied and raised a hand in salute. Chibi nodded and returned the gesture before flying back down to rejoin his wife and family. As Mirai closed the clear dome and prepared to take off, he asked Marron something he'd been wondering about all morning.

"So what did Chibi look so smug about when you two came back down from your fight?" Mirai asked. Marron chuckled and waved at everyone as the Capsule lifted off the ground.

"Well, you see I had to tell him a little fib to soothe his fragile ego…after all, I couldn't exactly tell him you're better at _everything_ than he is," she said grinning as she turned away from the small specks on the ground that were her friends. Mirai raised his eyebrows and chuckled, shaking his head slightly.

"Never mind…I don't think I want to know," he said. Marron leaned her head against his shoulder as he put his arms around her. She watched as the view outside the capsule changed to the swirling mass of the time stream.

"It's so beautiful!" she breathed, wide-eyed as she looked at it. Mirai nodded.

"It doesn't get any less spectacular the more times I see it," he said quietly. "This next part won't last long it's…"

"The jump between dimensions since my time was not in essence your past, but only similar to a point, they diverged after your first visit," Marron finished as the capsule went pitch black as it moved out of the time stream.

"Sorry…I forget how smart you are," Trunks apologized in the dark. Marron poked him lightly in the chest teasing.

"Remember that or I'll make you start calling me Dr. Marron. I have a doctorate you know..."

They came out of the dimensional jump into normal time in a snap of blinding sunlight and Marron could suddenly see Trunks as he looked at her with a serious expression.

"How about Dr. Briefs instead?" he asked softly and kissed her. Marron didn't know what to say, but she was saved from answering by them touching down near Capsule Corporation. Trunks smiled and kissed her again quickly. Marron looked out the clear dome and her stomach started to feel like it was full of butterflies on roller-skates. Trunks hadn't looked yet as he was busy getting ready to open the dome.

"Um…Trunks…didn't you say that Capsule Corp. had been rebuilt after the Jinzouningen attacks?" she asked in a small voice as Trunks released the dome.

"Hai…we rebuilt it good as new, why?" he asked then looked out for himself and fell silent stunned.

Everything looked the same…exactly the same as it had during the height of the Jinzouningen rampage. Crumbling buildings and debris and everything so deathly still, not a human in sight.

"What the hell_…" _Trunks breathed and followed Marron as they jumped down from the time capsule and landed lightly on the ground.

"No, Trunks…_when_ the hell are we?"

OWARI

The adventures of Mirai Trunks and Marron will be continued in Volume Two…


End file.
